BA Season 2: 32 to 36 'Breakdown'
by The Barracuda
Summary: Series summary: Goliath has been injected with a poison by Sobek, creating a savage animal. Voices call to him and force him to hurt all those he loves. With the aid of a magic spell, the clan fights their newest enemy in his mind, with help from a spec
1. Default Chapter

  
  
32 - "Breakdown Part 1: Shadows of the Past"  
Originally Written: June 12, 2000  
  
January 18th, 2001  
A cool breeze blew across the snow covered stones of Wyvern, causing Goliath's long  
sable locks to float around his shoulders and wings. The lavender giant stood silently on  
his tower, overlooking the rest of the grand castle and Manhattan island, his adopted  
home, his protectorate. He had sworn long ago to do everything in his power to ensure  
the safety of the innocent, and now his promise had been tested to it's very limits.  
  
It has been three weeks since Sobek's savage attack, and though the castle's damage had  
been repaired, he still felt as if he had failed his clan, failed his family. His wife and  
secondborn almost died at the hands of one of the most powerful and sadistic enemies he  
had ever faced. A gargoyle with psychotic compunctions about ruling the world and  
killing off the human race, including his most beloved mate.  
  
Goliath brought his hand to his brow and ran his taloned fingers across his forehead as a  
sharp pain erupted through his head. Another migraine. In the past week, he had been  
plagued with constant headaches that could not be cured by his stone state. Goliath kept  
silent about his physical condition to the others, not wanting them to worry, to fuss over  
him like a hatchling. A leader had to be strong, invincible. A leader could not let his  
weaknesses be known, not to anyone. Goliath closed his eyes and rubbed his brow until  
the pain died away slightly. He sighed, his hot breath swirling in the cold winter air, and  
eventually disappearing into New York's exhaust tinged atmosphere, becoming one with  
the clouds that surrounded his ancient home.  
  
The lavender giant tensed when his great hearing picked up the sound of footsteps on the  
stairway leading to his tower. Loafers. Italian loafers with a hard rubber heel.   
Expensive Italian loafers, belonging to only one person with access to the castle. Goliath  
turned to see David Xanatos appearing and walking towards him, wearing his trademark  
smirk.  
  
"Goliath," the billionaire greeted him in his usual calm manner, "I received word you  
wanted to speak with me?"  
  
"Yes. How are the repairs coming on the castle?" Goliath inquired of him, yet knew the  
answer even before Xanatos had a chance to speak.  
  
"Almost complete," Xanatos replied, recognizing Goliath's feeble attempt at smalltalk, "I  
bought an even bigger T.V. for the media room. And Owen's new additions to the  
security system will be finished within the week." The billionaire's eyes became hard,  
like the dark gray stone beneath his feet. "I intend to make sure that any uninvited guests  
will find it extremely difficult to attack our...your home again, without us knowing  
beforehand."  
  
Goliath huffed, sending another breath into the cool air. "It should not have happened at  
all." Goliath quickly turned away and placed his hands on the cornice edge. "My family  
should not be a target just because they are human. Just because Elisa chose to love me."  
  
"But it did happen, and your clan stopped him."  
  
"If I was one second later..."  
  
"You were not." Xanatos argued, trying not to rouse the seven foot seven giant as he  
knew Goliath's attitude of late has been turbulent at best. He leaned to the side to catch a  
glimpse of the gargoyle's powerful hands digging into the ancient stone. He smiled  
slightly, knowing he would have to add that particular piece of stone to Owen's repair  
list. Attempting to change the subject, Xanatos cleared his throat and stepped closer,  
being mindful of Goliath's violently lashing tail. "Now putting all that aside, I believe  
you had a sincere reason for wanting to talk to me, rather than discussing the castle's  
repair schedule."  
  
"What? Oh yes, I did. As you know, the anniversary of Elisa's and my mating is in four  
days and...I am in need of a...a favor."  
  
"Oh?" Xanatos cocked an eyebrow and grinned, knowing after all this time, it was still  
hard for Goliath to ask him for anything. But if it was for Elisa, he would even swallow  
his sizable pride and ask his former enemy-turned-ally for help. He watched as Goliath  
pulled something from his belt, a folded piece of paper. He carefully handed it to the  
billionaire and he accepted. Xanatos opened it and gasped when he gazed upon the  
contents.  
  
"A gift for Elisa," Goliath explained, "I have written instructions down on how I want it  
cut and arranged. I hope I have given you enough time."  
  
"Of course, Goliath. I'll put my best jewelers on it right away." Xanatos replied,  
examining the gargoyle's treasure, a gift which caused a soft green glow to be cast on his  
face. "I'm positive the detective will love it."  
  
****************************************  
  
January 22nd, 2001  
"I swear Trini, I think you got more water on me than you did on your entire body." Elisa  
chuffed, using a large white towel to dry off her daughter, perched on the marble  
countertop in her mother's massive bathroom. Elisa ran the towel over Trinity's small  
face, invoking a cheerful giggle from the small child. Ever so delicately, Elisa held  
Trinity's wings in her fingers, tenderly wiping the moisture from the chocolate  
membranes.  
  
Not too far away, Angela, sitting on the edge of the marble tub, watched as Trinity  
flapped her wings in an attempt to help dry her instruments of flight, but ended up  
spraying the excess water all over her mother.  
  
"Gah! Trinity Hope!!" Elisa yelled out in surprise, trying to protect herself from the  
onslaught of bathwater. Angela tried to suppress the impending laughter, but to no avail  
as she burst out in a muffled twitter. Elisa wiped the water from her face and clothes and  
scowled. Using the soft bathsheet, she wrapped Trinity into the white mounds and turned  
to face Angela, who was doubled over with laughter. "My daughters are ganging up on  
me."  
  
"I'm sorry," Angela recomposed herself and stood up, "it just looked so cute."  
  
"Uh huh." Elisa said simply. With daughter in hand, she left the bathroom and walked  
across the wide expanse of her bedroom heading for the nursery, leaving Angela to  
follow behind.  
  
The lavender gargess stopped in the archway and watched as Elisa dressed Trinity in her  
diaper and jumper, specially tailored for her 'extra appendages'. Usually, Elisa always  
carried a smile whenever she was in her daughter's presence, but now a look of sadness  
marked her beautiful features. And Angela knew exactly why. A recent attack on her  
home, on her stepmother and half sister's very lives, Elisa has had to endure several  
lifetime's worth of pain to live a contented life with her father. Angela felt her blood  
boiling as memories of Sobek rose up like bile in her throat and shuddered at just how  
close he came in killing two of the most important people in her life.  
  
"Angela?" Elisa's soft voice startled the lavender female, drawing her back from her  
muse and she turned to see Elisa looking around the small room. "Have you seen  
'Goyle?"  
  
"No. I'll look in the bedroom." Angela began her search in the massive room Elisa  
shared with her father. The 'Goyle was Trinity's stuffed toy, which resembled a child's  
teddy bear with wings and a short, stubby tail, similar to Alexander's own cherished  
plaything. Though only three months old, Trinity had inherited her mother's  
stubbornness and usually wouldn't fall asleep without her precious toy.  
  
As Angela neared the bed, her foot kicked upon something soft and she leaned down and  
lifted the quilt. There, sitting on it's side in the darkness provided by the massive king  
sized mattress, was 'Goyle, and Cagney, Elisa's cat, curled up alongside the plush figure.   
"I apologize, Cagney, but Trinity needs this more than you," she whispered to the waking  
cat, "why don't you go play in Shadow's chambers?" She grabbed the toy and stood up,  
running her hands down the silken fur. She stepped forward in the direction of the  
nursery but something large had blocked her path. "What?" Angela looked up to see  
Goliath standing over her, no discernible emotion on his face. "Oh, father."  
  
"Angela," he began, almost solemnly, "I was wondering if you could watch your younger  
sister for a while."  
  
"Of course. May I inquire why?" Angela asked, and her only response was a slight  
tugging on her father's lips. "Oh right. I forgot."  
  
****************************************  
  
Trinity Hope kicked her feet higher in the air, playing with her mother as she struggled to  
get the knitted booties on, a homemade gift from Diane. "You obstinate little..." Elisa  
had to restrain herself from swearing in front of the laughing child.  
  
"It seems she has inherited the Maza attitude." Angela's voice called from behind her.   
Elisa swiveled slightly to see the gargess pick the child from the changing table and hold  
her in her arms. "Mind if I borrow her for a while?"  
  
"Sure, if you can tell me what for."  
  
"I wish to talk with you alone, my love." Goliath answered, surprising his wife with a low  
rumble and causing her to whirl around. He extended his arm to her as Angela quietly  
slipped from the room. Elisa placed her copper hand in Goliath's lavender palm and  
allowed herself to be led to the canopied berth that was her bed. He motioned for her to  
sit down, and kneeled in front, bringing his face level with hers. He took a moment to  
stare into her eyes. Eyes he often took comfort in, and eyes he felt he had known for an  
entire lifetime.  
  
"Uh, Goliath?" Elisa ripped him from his admiring gaze and he suddenly remembered  
why he wanted to be alone with her.  
  
"I hope you have not forgotten the significance of this date."  
  
"What human could forget the day they married a gargoyle?" Elisa coyly replied as she  
leaned closer, giving her husband a sight of the famous Maza grin.  
  
Goliath flashed a small grin of his own and reached into his loincloth.  
  
"Hey now, it's late and I have a headache, honey." Elisa mumbled teasingly as Goliath  
thinned his eyes.  
  
"Are you finished?"  
  
"Quite."  
  
"Hmmm...humans often give gifts as a remembrance of their wedding day, and...I would  
like to do the same." Elisa's mood suddenly lightened and she watched with a swelling  
anticipation as Goliath withdrew a long black box with his nimble talons and handed it to  
her. Her hands slightly trembling, she took the box and looked to Goliath. With a nod of  
his head, she lifted the lid and gasped. Her chocolate brown eyes widened to full circles  
as she peered inside the velvet container. "Happy anniversary, my Elisa." Goliath purred.  
  
"Oh my god." Elisa reached in and pulled out a long golden chain, with a small green  
crystal, carved in the shape of a heart, attached in front. She held the pendant up to the  
chandelier, as the many faceted sides of the crystal reflected the striking light.   
"Where...where did you get this?"  
  
Goliath leaned in and helped wrap the golden-linked chain around Elisa's neck, clasping  
the two ends and moving back to watch his wife admire the pendant. "Do you remember  
when we traveled to Scotland after leaving Avalon for the first time?"  
  
"Yeah?"  
  
"These crystals grew only in the rookery cave where my clan was hatched. Thousands of  
the crystals used to line the walls and provide a soft verdant light, bathing the entire cave  
in their glow. Before we left, I was able to grab a small piece and hide it from sight."  
  
"That was five years ago. You kept it all this time?"  
  
"It was always intended to be a gift but," Goliath purpled slightly and looked down, "I  
never gathered the courage to present it to you after we arrived home. And after we  
declared our love for each other, I felt it may be too grand of a gesture so early in  
our...relationship."  
  
Elisa held the small crystal in her hand and blinked her eyes. "Goliath, it's beautiful."  
  
The lavender giant watched as Elisa's eyes welled up and tears streamed down her  
bronze skin. "Elisa? Why are you crying?" Goliath asked softly.  
  
Elisa quickly wiped her face with her sleeve and looked up into Goliath's deep charcoal  
eyes. "It's just..."  
  
"What?"  
  
Between her sobs, Elisa managed a small chuckle. "No matter how bad I feel, you  
always pull something out of your hat to help cheer me up."  
  
"Have I succeeded tonight?"  
  
"Almost." Elisa murmured distressingly and looked away. "I don't mean to spoil your  
surprise...but I guess I don't feel that happy right now."  
  
Goliath sighed deeply. He knew the reason of his wife's depression. For everything in  
the last six months, her near rape, the death of the clones, the attack on the castle, all had  
taken it's toll. Even the strongest of the strong can grow weak sometimes. "I wish I  
could erase your pain, Elisa. I wish I could have prevented the destruction, the attacks,  
the deaths..." He reached in and cupped Elisa's cheek, directing her gaze towards him  
once more. "Elisa, there is something I would like to know. Do you ever wish...I was  
human?"  
  
Elisa's mouth dropped open, as if the question was like a bullet through the chest. "Of  
course not!! Goliath, you know I..." She was abruptly silenced by a wave of Goliath's  
hand, and a single talon gingerly pressed to her lips.  
  
"Please, Elisa, the truth."  
  
Her shoulders drooped and she looked down, fixating her gaze on her hands laying in her  
lap. "I would be lying if I said it hadn't crossed my mind more than once. My husband,  
the man I love more than anything, and my friends, those special people who have  
become my family, and my beautiful baby girl, wouldn't be feared just because of who  
they are. They wouldn't be hunted, killed, treated like they don't have the right to exist."   
Elisa squeezed his hand with her own and brought it up against her face, feeling his  
powerful muscled hands on her warm skin. "We could be a normal couple. We could go  
to restaurants, movies, plays. We could be together in the sun. We could be together  
always. No evil gargoyles, no arrogant faeries, no scheming billionaires. No Xanatos, no  
Demona, no Oberon, no Madoc...no Thailog...no Sobek..." Elisa trailed off and her body  
went limp, practically falling into Goliath's awaiting hands. He pressed her securely to  
his chest and climbed onto the bed. He propped himself against the pillows and held  
tighter to his wife's slender frame. She started to cry once more, and as she sobbed,  
trembled in his arms. "Sometimes I wish...it could be over."  
  
****************************************  
  
Hours passed on, and the rest of the city continued unceasingly their industrious  
existence of the night, totally and wholly oblivious to the citizens who dwelled above the  
clouds. Goliath shifted in his light slumber, a victim of the thick bedspread and plush  
pillows. Elisa lay curled within his folded wings and rested soundly in his intimate  
embrace, having cried herself to sleep.  
  
Goliath's eyes fluttered. He was dreaming, of friends and family long past. A life so  
long ago, torn away by mistrust and hatred.  
  
...goliath...  
  
A voice called to him, through the haze of his dreams.  
  
...Goliath...  
  
The voice called again, stronger this time.  
  
...Why did you leave us?...  
  
The voice turned cold, lifeless.  
  
...Why did you betray us?...  
  
The voice grew in intensity. The voice wasn't alone, a fusion of souls speaking as one.  
  
...GOLIATH!!!...  
  
"No!!" The lavender giant awoke with a start, small beads of sweat trickling down his  
brow.  
  
His outburst woke his wife and she shot up. "Goliath?! What is it?"  
  
"Just...a dream." Goliath laid back, closing his eyes. "Nothing more." A look of pain  
washed over him and he unconsciously gritted his teeth.  
  
Elisa noticed. "Another headache."  
  
"What? How did you..."  
  
"I'm your wife, remember?" Elisa ran her knuckles down his brow and gently wiped the  
sweat away. "I know everything."  
  
Goliath relented and winced in pain as the shrill throbbing within his skull became  
worse. "It will pass."  
  
"You've had these headaches for almost two weeks now. Maybe you should see Dr.  
Pierce."  
  
"I don't think that's necess..."  
  
...goliath... A voice called. The voice.  
  
Goliath bolted up once more and Elisa was thrown to the side. The lavender giant's  
pulse quickened and his breathing became short.  
  
...goliath...  
  
Goliath rose from the bed in a stupor and directed his gaze towards the double doors near  
the fireplace, leading to the couple's private balcony.  
  
...Goliath...  
  
Elisa sat up and watched in fear as her husband paced slowly away from her. "Goliath,  
what is it?"  
  
"Can't you hear it?" His voice trembled, as if revealing a hidden dread.  
  
"Hear what?"  
  
"The voice." Goliath continued his way towards the doors. Suddenly, his eyes caught  
movement outside. Specters danced beyond the frosted glass and the white curtains  
framing the doors. Shadows with a shape known only to the deepest memories of  
Goliath's soul. He started to run, knocking furniture over in his mad dash towards the  
terrace. The doors flew open and Goliath was hit by the cold wind, biting into his  
leathery skin as if a thousand knives had been hurled his way. But what he expected to  
find wasn't there.  
  
"Goliath?" Elisa came up beside him. "What did you see?"  
  
"Not what. Who..."  
  
"I don't see anyone." Elisa replied, scanning the terrace and the rest of the castle.  
  
"I saw someone."  
  
"But Goliath, there's no one out here."  
  
"I SAW THEM!!!" Goliath roared to his wife, loud enough to cause an echo. "They were  
here! I..." He eyed Elisa once more, noticing her stepping back slightly upon seeing the  
rage in his eyes. "Elisa, I am...sorry. I didn't meant to raise my voice. Not at you."  
  
"It's all right. If you say you saw someone, I believe you."  
  
"Thank you."  
  
"So, who did you see?"  
  
"Someone...familiar."  
  
****************************************  
  
January 24th, 2001  
A massive shadow swallowed the entrance to Annika's room, as Goliath approached her  
doors, and with a simple, yet still heavy hand, rapped a few times on the wooden surface.  
  
"Come in?" Annika called out to her visitor, having been startled from her book by the  
resounding knock.  
  
Goliath silently entered and closed the door behind him. He did nothing but stare intently  
at the young gargess, who in turn met his gaze from her position on her bed. "I have  
recently heard that Todd introduced you to his friends a couple of weeks back..." he  
rasped, his low voice even more grating than usual.  
  
"Uh...yeah," she replied, replacing her bookmark and feeling now as if she had  
committed a heinous crime, "is there a problem?"  
  
"That was a dangerous risk you took, in revealing yourself to them."  
  
"Well, maybe but..."  
  
"From now on, you will receive permission from me to do anything else of the sort."  
  
Annika flashed an angered look to Goliath, as she stood up and encroached on his stead.   
"I will do what I please, when I please, or is this a dictatorship?"  
  
Goliath remained speechless, all but raising his chin and the charcoal of his eyes receding  
from sight as his brow lowered to present his growing animosity.  
  
"Besides," she continued on, "I have five new human friends, and the rest of those at that  
party now know gargoyles are a peaceful race."  
  
"Regardless. You brought this clan into a dangerous position, and I will not allow my  
family to be endangered because of the actions of some young teenager, and his gargoyle  
girlfriend who does not realize how fragile our concealment from the humans can be."  
  
"I beg your pardon," Annika spit back, "I am fully aware of our situation."  
  
"I don't think you are!" Goliath bellowed, stepping forward. "How many of those  
humans know where we live, or know of Elisa's marriage to me, or know of Trinity's  
birth?!"  
  
Annika now was at a loss for words, as her own growing apprehension had clouded her  
thoughts. "J-Just the five, but they're all Todd's closest friends. They wouldn't betray  
us, or Elisa."  
  
"I hope so, for your sake." Goliath replied back, glaring down upon the cowering gargess.   
"If anything happens to this clan, or my mate, because of your actions, you will be truly  
sorry. You are a part of this clan, and if you wish to remain a part, you will do everything  
I say. Clear?!"  
  
Annika swallowed hard, "Crystal."  
  
"Inform Mr. Hawkins of our discussion as well, and tell him never to take such a risk  
without consulting me. Ever." he snarled, inhaling deeply before slowly turning away  
from Annika, his very posture and body language a sign of an impending unrest,  
tortuously draped upon him.  
  
Annika watched him leave and collapsed to her bed when the doors slammed closed.   
Her hands were violently shaking. For the first time upon meeting Goliath, this was  
perhaps the only time she had ever feared the once gentle, lavender giant. "Whoa..."  
  
****************************************  
  
January 25th, 2001  
It had stopped snowing and the sky was clear, yet the winter chill still hung over the city  
like a shroud, resulting in an absence of traffic, both automobile and pedestrian. The city  
had grown quiet, recovering from the celebrations of the new year, as the citizens had  
dragged themselves back to work and their daily regiment continued on.  
  
It was well after midnight and three shadows skimmed the skyscrapers, barely disturbing  
the piles of snow collecting on the rooftops, having accumulated after every flurry. The  
gargoyles were out tonight, watching over their home with razor sharp eyes, that have  
evolved over two thousand years for life in eternal darkness.  
  
Goliath led the group, with Broadway and Angela following behind. They kept their  
distance for a reason, as their leader had become sullen and edgy. Even the smallest  
infraction on anyone's part, friend or foe, would set him off like a high explosive.  
  
Angela shifted slightly in mid-flight and rubbed her shoulders. Her wings were becoming  
sore as the small band had been airborne for almost two hours without rest. She  
quickened her pace and flew beside her father, who barely acknowledged her presence.   
"Father? Don't you think we should head back home?"  
  
"Our duty is to protect." Goliath responded coldly. "And our patrol isn't over yet."  
  
"But the city is quiet tonight. We have barely seen a soul out in this frigid weather."  
  
"We will finish our patrol!" Goliath snapped back.  
  
"But father..." Angela tried to argue but was abruptly interrupted.  
  
"THE SUBJECT IS CLOSED!!!"  
  
Angela quickly swerved away and allowed her father to fly ahead. She waited for  
Broadway, who had heard all of Goliath's heated words, to catch up and take his place at  
her side. "I've never seen him like this." Angela whispered, being mindful to keep  
herself quiet.  
  
Broadway nodded. "I know. It's been going on for a week now and he's not getting any  
better. I thought his anniversary would lift his spirits somewhat, but..."  
  
"I don't like this." Angela acquiesced. "I know the last few months have been difficult,  
but it's still not...natural. Something's wrong."  
  
"Yeah." Broadway agreed once more with his mate. "Very wrong."  
  
But suddenly, Goliath slowed his flight and dived recklessly towards the city. Angela  
and Broadway were barely able to turn themselves and follow. The lavender giant came  
to a halt on the rooftop of a rather high building and frantically scanned his surroundings.  
  
Angela landed and ran up alongside. "Father, what is it?!"  
  
Goliath never answered. From the corner of his eye, he noticed movement behind an  
alcove offered by the building's structure. More shadows. As he moved closer, the  
shadows moved away, fading into the night. "No!! Please, don't go!" Goliath called to  
them, his cry becoming a desperate plea.  
  
...Goliath...  
  
He sank to his knees and covered his ears. "No..."  
  
...Goliath...betrayer...destroyer...we believed in you...you let us down...  
  
"No...I did my best." Goliath whispered.  
  
"Father?" Angela placed a hand on his shoulder and felt the muscles in his back tensing,  
twisting beneath the thick skin.  
  
"I did my best...I lived for my clan..." Goliath's words flowed together in a mumbled  
rant, speaking to the empty air and leaving Angela to flash a worried look to Broadway.   
He nodded and attempted to help Goliath to his feet. The lavender giant swiftly pulled  
away and staggered to the edge of the building. Using his powerful arms, he brought  
them down upon the brick work, and with a crushing blow, turned an entire section of the  
ledge to rubble. "NO!!!"  
  
"What's wrong with him?" Angela beseeched in an agonized whisper, watching her  
father cocoon himself within his wings.  
  
"I don't know, Angela. But we'd better find out. And soon."  
  
****************************************  
  
"Uhm...uh...h-hullo?" a groggy voice answered.  
  
"Dr. Pierce?" Angela asked, as she gripped tightly to the receiver of the telephone.  
  
A mere moment of silence, and then a reply, "...Angela?"  
  
"Yes. I hope I didn't wake you."  
  
"Don't worry, I'm a doctor. I'm used to it."  
  
Angela managed a slight grin. "I'm glad." Her soft voice carried traces of concern,  
enough to alert the human on the other end of the line.  
  
"What's wrong?" Pierce asked.  
  
"It's about my father. He's acting...strange."  
  
"How so?"  
  
"He's easily angered, temperamental, sullen."  
  
"Well, Xanatos has kept me informed of all the...uhm...'activities' that have occurred in  
the past few weeks and I think he's entitled to a bad mood. I mean, his wife and daughter  
were almost killed."  
  
Angela sighed. "I know, but there's more than just his mood. He gets powerful  
headaches and tries to hide his pain from the rest of us. He sees things that aren't there,  
acts as if a unknown force is speaking to him...he...he's scaring me. He's acting like a  
whole different person."  
  
"Hmmm. Well, maybe I'll take a look at him tomorrow night." Dr. Pierce calmed the  
young gargess. "Tell him to be in my office at sundown, and we'll start from there."  
  
"Thank you, Dr. Pierce," Angela sighed her relief, "hopefully, you can find what's wrong  
before he does something he may truly regret."  
  
****************************************  
  
The room was hauntingly quiet. The thick stone walls prevented any sounds from  
disturbing the tranquillity of the single occupant, lying on the large bed. Elisa was on the  
verge of slumber, her eyelids closed, keeping any stray light from intruding. Trinity was  
in the caring hands of Othello and Desdemona, allowing the new mother a rare  
experience: peace. She rolled slowly onto her back and opened her eyes, staring up at the  
wooden canopy overhead and studying the intricate details the aged wood created in it's  
varnished surface. Even with the air of serenity, she could not sleep, no matter how hard  
she tried. She smiled slightly, as she knew the reason for her restlessness. Since  
Halloween night, she had fallen asleep listening to the quiet, gentle breathing of her  
daughter.  
  
But the peacefulness was broken briskly when the tall doors flew open and a large figure  
rambled through. It was Goliath, clutching his head and breathing heavily. Elisa  
watched with a swelling dread as her husband walked towards the bed, oblivious to her  
presence. "Goliath?" Elisa got up and came to his side. She placed a hand on his  
shoulder, but he pulled away as if her skin was scalding hot. He stared at her with large  
eyes, expressing nothing but an intense terror. He began to back away, his gaze still  
centered on Elisa. "Goliath, what's wrong?!"  
  
He did not answer her fearful cry. He whirled around and tried to get away, but his knees  
gave way and he fell against the stone wall. Using the battlement for support, he steadied  
himself and tried to clear his head.  
  
Elisa came forward again, almost afraid to make anymore contact with him, in fear that  
his tenuous grip on reality would shatter. "Goliath?"  
  
"...go away..." His voice was barely above a whisper.  
  
"No, I won't. Something's wrong with you."  
  
"...I can't make the voices stop...please leave me alone..."  
  
"Goliath, I'm here," she tried again to reach him through her soothing words, "please let  
me help you."  
  
"...no...leave me alone..."  
  
"Goliath..."  
  
"I said," his eyes flared white, "LEAVE ME ALONE!!!" The lavender giant spun around  
and caught Elisa in the face with his massive fist. Her head snapped back and she flew  
back several feet, landing on the floor. She shakily brought a hand to her cheek and felt  
the blood rush forth from several large gashes, covering her copper skin with streaks of  
scarlet. She looked up to Goliath, who was still standing over her, a look of horror  
stained upon his once noble face. "...Elisa..."  
  
"You...you hit me..."  
  
"I...I didn't mean to...I..." Goliath brought his hands to his face and looked with absolute  
contempt and disgrace at his taloned hands, covered with small droplets of Elisa's blood,  
the blood of his wife, his mate, the person he loved more than anyone, anything...   
"I...I'm sorry..." Backing away in slow steady steps, he headed for the balcony doors.  
  
"Goliath, wait..." Elisa called, as she recovered from the initial shock.  
  
"No...I may hurt you again..." He bolted for the doors and charged through them,  
destroying the steel locking mechanism in the process. With a quick hop, he dove from  
the cornice and flew from sight, his lavender skin disguising him against the sky.  
  
"Goliath!!" Elisa called again, but her cries went unanswered. "It wasn't your fault..."  
  
  
To be continued... 


	2. Breakdown Part 2: Descent Into Madness

  
  
33 - "Breakdown Part 2: Descent Into Madness"  
Originally Written: June 16th, 2000  
  
Author's Note: A comment has popped up, and yes, I am well aware the previous story,  
and this one, are similar to the episode "Shadows Of The Past" from season 2.   
That's...uh, kind of the entire point. It was INTENDED!!! ...from the very beginning.   
This story serves as a continuance of what Goliath felt over the loss of his clan, and will  
bring the entire plot thread full circle, with what started in that episode. Please don't  
condemn these stories before reading them and seeing how a new twist will develop in  
the continuing chapters.  
Laters...The Barracuda  
  
Author's Note 2: If there's any GundamWing fans out there, I have posted the first of  
three stories here in the Gundam section. Just trying something a little different. Ugh,  
shameless plug, I feel so dirty...  
  
January 25th, 2001  
"Jeez, that stings!" Elisa winced as the cotton swab glided across her skin.  
  
"If you would hold still, detective Maza." Owen Burnett casually replied as he tended to  
the three massive lacerations on her face. "The rubbing alcohol will only hurt for a  
couple of minutes. The wounds are deep and we need to keep them clean if they are to  
heal properly."  
  
"Yeah, whatever." Elisa reluctantly conceded and allowed Owen to dress her wounds  
with gauze, covering her entire left cheek. As soon as Owen finished and moved away  
from her, a caramel hand gently caressed her shoulder. Elisa turned to catch sight of  
Desdemona taking a seat next to her on the couch. She quickly turned away again and  
focused her gaze on the large marble and stone fireplace, adorning the wall near the  
balcony doors. A fire had been started and the flames roared high, sustaining themselves  
on the fumes of natural gas being fed into the stone enclosure. Elisa stared into the  
inferno of color and light, losing herself in their fiery waltz, until she felt the gargoyle's  
hand tighten it's grip.  
  
"Elisa?" Desdemona asked softly, knowing the human beside her was being consumed  
slowly by her own mental anguish. "Are you all right?"  
  
Elisa quickly turned her head towards the gargoyle and scowled, efficiently letting her  
obvious resentment towards the question, which had been repeated to her many times in  
the past half hour, be known to Desdemona and the others gathered in her bedroom.   
"Oh...I'm just friggin' peachy." she quipped, coming off a little more irate than she  
intended.  
  
"I apologize for the foolish question, but I'm..."  
  
"Worried, I know." Elisa rose from the couch and slowly walked into the center of the  
bedroom, eyeing the other members, and noticing the expressions of concern, of anxiety,  
of total fear on each and every one of their distinct and divergent faces.  
  
For less than thirty minutes ago, their human friend, the woman who had risked her life  
for them on more times then they could remember, was brutally tossed aside like a rag  
doll at the hands of her husband, his taloned hand digging into her flesh and leaving a  
very visible mark. A sign of his unintended transgression, that would eventually heal and  
fade from sight in time, but the memory of the swift attack threatened to cling to Elisa's  
mind for an eternity.  
  
News of her assault spread through the castle like wildfire, prompting the entire clan to  
converge on the bedroom that once sheltered two people who were once thought to be  
the perfect couple, with the perfect marriage.  
  
Annika was the first to find Elisa, sprawled on the floor, trying unsuccessfully to keep the  
blood from draining from her wounds. The detective was almost catatonic and babbling  
incoherently, barely forming words that blended together in one unending line, most of  
them centering on Goliath. Annika tried to calm her but could not break Elisa from her  
euphoria, until a rose-colored hand came across the side of her face. A light slap that   
sufficiently brought her back to consciousness.  
  
As the others arrived, one by one, Elisa braved the onslaught of questions and solemnly  
explained how three large gashes appeared on her cheek. The clan was stunned. All had  
known of Goliath's foul mood but never would have imagined their leader would strike  
the woman he cherished more than his own life.  
  
"I still can't believe it." Todd's comment brought Elisa back to the present and she  
turned his way. "I mean, he worships the ground you walk on and he does this to you?"  
  
"It wasn't his fault," Elisa replied, "he's sick."  
  
"How can you tell?"  
  
"A wife understands her husband, and I know Goliath. Better than he knows himself."   
Elisa gingerly stroked the patch on her face and could almost feel the blood still seeping  
through, clotting within the white gauzed fabric. "There was something in his eyes."  
  
"That would explain the headaches and hallucinations." Angela perked up slightly from  
her position on the mahogany rocker, partially wrapped in the white shawl. She had  
chosen the wooden chair as it was her father's favorite place to lull Trinity to sleep, a  
cherished afterimage left in the young gargess' eyes. "And the voices he was hearing.   
It's the same when we arrived in Scotland after leaving Avalon." She leaned back into  
the soft fabric, causing the chair to creak. "Only worse."  
  
"But how did he get sick in the first place?" Broadway asked as he leaned against the  
wall, near the archway leading into Trinity's small room.  
  
"Sobek..." The name rolled off Elisa's tongue like poison. "Just before he escaped, he  
jabbed some kind of needle into Goliath's neck. Probably some form of poison, a toxin."   
The slender human clenched her fists with anger and disgust. "That bastard..."  
  
"The damage has been done, Elisa." Xanatos stepped forward, having heard the entire  
discussion from the far side of the room. "Now our primary concern is finding your  
husband and getting him healthy."  
  
"He could be anywhere." Annika added, as she tightened her grip around her boyfriend's  
shoulders.  
  
"Then we'll have to find him." Elisa said, and turned to her adopted family. "Split up in  
groups of three. Each team will take a different section of the island. I'll call Derek and  
have the other mutates start searching as well. Owen, call Dr. Pierce and get him over  
here. Tell him to get ready..." Elisa stood defiantly and watched the clan rise to their  
feet, a renewed spirit growing in each of them. "We're bringing Goliath home."  
  
****************************************  
  
The smell of used and acrid motor oil permeated the night air, effectively blocking any  
other scent from the immediate area, no matter how powerful it may be. Timeworn  
vehicles, now nothing but empty husks, piled up from the ground, almost seeming to  
grasp for the heavens and creating a fortress of steel and glass, plastic and rubber. A  
veritable labyrinth lay within, covered with the freshly fallen snow and disguising any  
tracks left behind.  
  
A large figure loomed over the wrecks, desperately trying to find shelter from the  
onslaught of nature's fervent fury. It staggered through the cars and trucks until it spotted  
a small cavity created by an entanglement of metal. It crawled in and a pair of massive  
wings curled around, providing a natural barrier against the snow.  
  
Goliath closed his eyes, and tried to steady his breathing. But he could not silence the  
voices within his head, calling to him and steadily tearing away at his very soul.  
  
...Goliath...  
  
"No, please..." Goliath appealed to the voices, but his continued efforts only made them  
stronger.  
  
...you abandoned us...  
  
"I was doing my duty. I thought you would be safe back at the castle."  
  
...you left us to die...  
  
"NOOOOO!!!" Roaring his sorrow for all creatures to hear, the lavender giant swiped  
away his refuge and sent the cars flying in all directions. He stood to his full height, his  
skin straining to hold the muscles contained within, and grasped his taloned hands to the  
sides of his head. "You are not real, you are not real!" He tried desperately to convince  
himself.  
  
...destroyer...murderer...  
  
"No...I don't hurt those I love."  
  
...then why did you strike your wife?...  
  
Goliath looked to his hand, still covered with small amounts of Elisa's blood, which had  
dried and caked to his skin. "I didn't mean to..."  
  
...yes, you did...  
  
"No...no..."  
  
...murderer...  
  
"RRRAAAUUUUUGGHHH!!!!" Goliath's once powerful legs weakened and he sunk to  
the ground, causing the soft soil to compress under his tremendous weight. The snow  
still fell, piling higher on his shoulders. Goliath never noticed. He was lost within his  
mind, a victim of a plague that was eating him alive. A powerful virus that had caused  
him to lash out at his family and attack his beautiful wife. He felt as if his very spirit was  
dying. "W-What...is happening to me?"  
  
****************************************  
  
"This is becoming futile." Shadow cussed beneath his breath. "I would think trying to  
find a seven and a half foot tall, lavender gargoyle would be easier than this."  
  
"Manhattan is bigger than you think, Shadow." Delilah replied as she flew beside him.   
"Goliath could be anywhere."  
  
"And in his condition, he could be a threat to anyone who comes in contact with him."   
Shadow and Delilah turned to see Annika fly below, her dark rose wings extended to  
their full reach, catching enough cool air to lift her to her friends' level. "We've got to  
find him fast." she sighed and scanned the white round below her, desperately searching  
for anything that could lead her to Goliath. Her large blue eyes pierced the swirling  
snow, as building after building passed beneath them, eventually opening into a large  
fenced area, filled with hundreds of wrecked automobiles. And within those walls of  
steel, a familiar shape huddled on the ground, engulfed within the frozen ice. "We've  
found him."  
  
****************************************  
  
His breath was husky, his throat raw, his eyes conveying the agony he was forced to  
endure. The pain had taken over all of his senses, numbing all feeling and ravaging any  
cognizant thought. Goliath curled deeper into the mass of snow, and shivered violently,  
though he felt no cold. The voices continued. Continued to beckon and to blame and to  
torment. They had not let up since he landed in the junkyard hours ago. They would not  
stop and let him rest. He could find no peace, even inside the confines of his very  
subconscious.  
  
So enraptured by the voices, Goliath would not, or could not notice the sounds of  
footfalls in the deep snow.  
  
Annika slowly approached her friend, being cautious due to his explosive temper   
worsened by the virus. "Goliath?" The lavender giant never moved. "Goliath?" Annika  
asked again, taking a step closer.  
  
Goliath stirred slightly as a voice, separate from the others in his head, broke through the  
haze. He looked up to see a slender female form standing over him. But what he saw  
was different from what was really there. He did not see rose pink skin, he saw a golden  
pumpkin orange complexion, blending flawlessly with a full leather tunic. Spiral horns  
grew from auburn hair and curved upwards, ending with tapered tips. Goliath finally  
moved, rising slowly from the ground and eyeing Annika with a look of astonishment.   
He stood to his full height and blinked his eyes, trying to clear the image standing before  
him, not being able to trust his senses any longer. "Sister?"  
  
Annika edged back a little. "Pardon?" Though Goliath considered her a friend and  
family member, he never referred to her with that particular title.  
  
"My clever sister...you are alive!!" Goliath bellowed and swallowed Annika's smaller  
body in a giant bearhug. "I...I thought you were destroyed."  
  
"Goliath!" Annika tried to push away but was held firmly in place. It was not until  
Shadow and Delilah came forward when Goliath dropped her to the ground.  
  
"Brother...sister, you have survived as well." He staggered towards the couple, who in  
turn, gave each other confused looks, and turned back to their approaching leader. But  
Goliath stopped in midstep, his joyous smile quickly disappearing. The two gargoyles  
before him began to fade from sight as darkness engulfed his surroundings. "Wha...what  
is happening?" The pain returned with a vengeance as Goliath grabbed his head and  
stared at what he thought were his family lost to him a thousand years ago. Their forms  
changed, altered, metamorphosed into something unrecognizable. Wings grew and claws  
lengthened. Soft skin became rough and boned spurs erupted from their scaled hides.   
From noble gargoyles, demons were born. Hideous and misshapen, they smelled of evil,  
filling Goliath's besieged senses with a pungent stench.  
  
...THEY killed your clan... The voices came back, this time blaming the others before  
him.  
  
...they must be destroyed... They grew louder, forcing Goliath to mind, and compelling  
him to obey.  
  
"Goliath-sama, why are you staring at us in such a manner?" Shadow quietly questioned  
the lavender giant, whose only response was a low growl, as the virus distorted the dark  
warrior's words into squalling gibberish.  
  
"DESTROYERS!!!" With eyes blazing white hot, Goliath screamed forward and struck  
Shadow in the face. The dark warrior, not expecting such a savage attack from his  
comrade, could barely block in time, but the force of the blow knocked him back into an  
old rusted cadillac, causing the metal to fold in on itself.  
  
Delilah watched in horror as Shadow slumped to the ground. "Goliath?! What are you  
doing?" She came up behind him, placing a copper hand on his broad shoulder. "We're  
your friends. Why are you attacking us?"  
  
Goliath slowly turned to face the clone, his eyes burning with anger. "Murderer!!"  
  
Delilah edged back slowly as Goliath advanced on her. She was stopped by the wall of  
steel, outlining the yard, and was forced to watch as Goliath's immense shadow plunged  
her in a bitter darkness. She sucked in a rasped breath as he raised his fist, bringing it  
level with her face.  
  
"Destroyer...you will pay!!"  
  
"I think not." A dark grayish-purple hand caught Goliath's arm. Shadow had come to  
aid his blossom and held the lavender giant back. "I do not want to hurt you  
Goliath-sama, but I cannot allow you to destroy your own clan, especially the woman I  
have come to love." Shadow quickly slipped his arms under Goliath's shoulders and  
clasped the back of his head, forming a powerful full nelson and keeping the sick  
gargoyle from lashing out at his very family.  
  
Goliath struggled furiously, and Shadow strained to keep him on the ground. Goliath  
screamed his rage and fought with all of his strength to break free from the dark warrior's  
grip. He was stronger but Shadow's fighting skill allowed him to hold tight to Goliath's  
frame...barely.  
  
"Why does this seem so familiar?" Shadow chuffed quietly. "Please, Goliath, cease your  
struggle. We're here to help you!" Shadow tried to appeal to Goliath's sense of  
judgment, but it was completely ineffectual.  
  
...they destroyed your clan...  
  
"You destroyed my clan!! You killed my family!!" the lavender giant screamed.   
"Demons!!! Monsters!!!"  
  
...yes, Goliath...they are your enemies...they caused the death of your clan...they must  
die...  
  
The voices spoke to Goliath. Days ago, they would torment him about his role in the  
death of his clan, even though he had no part in the betrayal of Wyvern and its residents.   
Now, they have turned him against his closest friends. "Let me go!!" he bellowed.  
  
Annika rushed forward and grabbed his hands, knowing Shadow could not hold him for  
much longer. "Goliath, you've got to stop this! Goliath?!"  
  
The lavender giant saw nothing but wraiths in his eyes, surrounding him, tearing into his  
flesh. "DEMONS!!!"  
  
(((Goliath))) A new voice whispered from the void, freezing Goliath in his tracks.  
  
(((Goliath...don't fight your friends))) The voice was soothed and calming, different from  
the others' chorused, frenzied rasp.  
  
"They are demons!" Goliath answered back.  
  
(((no...they are not...look again)))  
  
Goliath looked down, into Annika's face. For the first time tonight, he saw her for what  
she really is. "A-Annika? But...but I saw..."  
  
(((what you perceived were illusions...created by the virus devouring your body)))  
  
"V-Virus?"  
  
"Yes, Goliath." Annika answered as Shadow cautiously released him. "You're very sick.   
You have to come back with us to the castle."  
  
"I...I cannot. I may harm someone...again..."  
  
"If we don't find a cure, who knows what you may do. You're dangerous in this  
condition and a hazard to the very people you've sworn to protect."  
  
"No...no..."  
  
(((listen to your friends, Goliath...they would never deceive you...think of your clan)))  
  
"My...clan."  
  
Annika cocked an eyebrow to Shadow, who in turn just shrugged. "Who the hell is he  
talking to?" she whispered.  
  
"I have absolutely no idea, Annika-chan." Shadow replied. "Perhaps it's the toxin  
affecting him once more."  
  
(((listen to them Goliath...they want to help you))) The soothing voice continued.  
  
...they betrayed you...killed your clan... The other voices attempted to drown out the  
solitary speaker.  
  
"No..." Goliath squeaked.  
  
(((don't listen to the others...listen to me...focus on me)))  
  
...murderer...betrayer...  
  
(((leader...friend)))  
  
"No...leave me alone..." Goliath was almost brought to tears as a war raged for control  
of his mind.  
  
...killer...they died because of you...  
  
(((it was not your fault)))  
  
"NOOOOOO!!!"  
  
"GOLIATH!!!" A shrill voice pierced the air, bringing all three gargoyles to attention. It  
was Delilah. During the short but intense struggle, she had remained on the sidelines.   
After all the grief she had experienced in the last few months, she had chosen not to fight  
against one of her dearest friends. But she could not hold back anymore. She stepped  
between Annika and Shadow and steadily drew near, eventually coming close enough to  
stand inches away from Goliath's giant frame. "Please Goliath, I can't stand to see you  
like this. I've already lost four of my brothers," she placed her hand against his,  
interlocking his fingers with her own, "I don't want to lose my father as well. Come  
back. For us. For Elisa."  
  
"Elisa?...but I...I hit her."  
  
"She knows you were sick. She is waiting back at the Eyrie for one of us to bring you  
home. She's sick to death with worry."  
  
Goliath released a breath and lost his balance, leaning against Delilah's smaller form.  
She strained to hold him and motioned for the others to help her. Shadow propped the  
lavender giant up with his shoulder and watched his eyes flutter open. He was fighting a  
losing battle against the emptiness of unconsciousness. The virus was taking it's toll.   
"...Elisa..."  
  
"I believe...you should call Mr. Xanatos, Annika-chan, I don't think...oof...we should  
allow him to fly." Shadow said as he strained to keep seven hundred pounds of gargoyle  
on his feet. Annika nodded and pulled a cell phone from her belt, punching in the  
castle's private number.  
  
Delilah graced the lavender giant's cheek with her warm hand. A touch so gentle yet  
strong enough to bring him back if only for a moment. "It's all right. We're taking you  
home."  
  
Goliath dipped his head in his best effort to show his acceptance. "...Elisa..."  
  
****************************************  
  
"Get him on the stretcher." Dr. Adam Pierce called to the gargoyles as they disembarked  
from the sleek black helicopter Fox had used to pick them up from the junkyard just  
minutes ago. Goliath was still fighting to stay awake and could barely support himself.   
Shadow hefted the lavender giant up and onto the white sheets of the hospital stretcher,  
specially reinforced for great amounts of weight. "Let's get him to my office." Dr.  
Pierce allowed Shadow to push the cart behind him as they headed for the elevator doors.  
  
The lift lurched to a stop and the large doors hissed open, revealing the sparkling white  
tiled floor of the Eyrie building's interior, and the level that housed Dr. Pierce's massive  
lab and hospital room. The rest of the clan were waiting from them outside of his office,  
especially Elisa.  
  
She had elected to stay at the castle, desperately hoping for any word on her missing  
husband. The night continued on in darkness as she lingered, engulfed in fear,  
threatening to devour her last reserves of strength. Shattering the desolation of her  
bedroom, seeming even bigger to the lone occupant, the telephone's piercing ring  
signaled the good news she had hoped against all odds to hear.  
  
As soon as she caught sight of her husband being wheeled around the corner, she rushed  
to greet the group, immediately coming to the steel cart's side. "Oh thank god...Goliath."   
She leaned over his body, and ran her fingers down his brow.  
  
Upon feeling the soft skin of his mate, Goliath's eyes slowly opened and Elisa's blurred  
form came into view. He particularly noticed the bandage covering the left side of her  
face. "Elisa...I'm so sorry..."  
  
"Shhhh, I know, I know. It wasn't your fault. You're very sick." Elisa grabbed his  
lavender hand and gave it a hard squeeze, resonating her own pain. "But we're going to  
get you well again. I promise."  
  
"...I hear voices...I see those long dead..."  
  
"I know." Elisa assured him, though she was not sure if she believed him or not. She felt  
a hand grab her shoulder as Dr. Pierce came forward, trying to be as courteous as  
possible, but still allowing the human a moment with her gargoyle husband.  
  
"Elisa, I have to get him in the lab. If we're going to find what's making him sick, Dr.  
Weathers and I need to start right away. Any time we waste could result in more damage  
to his immune system."  
  
"All right, but I'm staying with him." said Elisa defiantly. Dr. Pierce, with Dr. Trishia  
Weathers joining him from the office, took the stretcher from the dark warrior's hands  
and moved through the throng, as the clan looked on at their fallen leader with a  
saddened gaze. A figure so immense, so powerful, it was hard to believe anything could  
bring the lavender giant to the breaking point. He was more than their leader, more than  
their friend, Goliath was the very heart and soul of the clan, and now he was withering  
away before their eyes.  
  
Elisa slowly followed behind and took one last glance at the clan before disappearing  
into the darkened office and closing the door behind her.  
  
  
To be continued... 


	3. Breakdown Part 3: Window Into The Soul

  
  
34 - "Breakdown Part 3: Window Into The Soul"  
Originally Written: January 4th, 2001  
  
January 25th, 2000  
"...i didn't mean to...i didn't mean to...i loved you all...you were my clan...my  
family...i'm sorry..." As if a child's voice had replaced his own, Goliath rambled on,  
huddled within the mass of his wings, and the destructive haze of his declining health.   
He was curled into a fetal position on the hospital bed, eyes refusing to blink, unable to  
close and hide from view, his former Scottish clan come back to life to haunt his every  
waking thought in streaks of horrifying memory flashes.  
  
"Goliath..." a tone of peace and serenity called out behind him. "Goliath? Please answer  
me..." It was Elisa, gingerly and quite timidly placing both hands upon his massive  
backside, yet receiving no response from her husband. "Please," she begged him, "I'm  
here, I'll help you, but you have to talk with me. You have to stay with me."  
  
"...i'm sorry...i'm sorry..." Goliath whispered continuously, unable to perceive Elisa's  
hands roaming the breadth of his spine and kneading his knotted neck muscles.  
  
"We'll find a way, Big Guy," she leaned against him and pressed her uninjured cheek to  
his trembling skin, "I promise." She reluctantly left his side and with a weighted stride,  
approached the far edge of the hospital room, where doctors Pierce and Weathers were  
examining what samples they had taken from the lavender giant.  
  
Barely an hour had passed since Goliath was brought home, and his mental state had  
immediately taken a turn for the worse. Elisa could only stand by and bare witness to the  
most powerful being she had ever met, collapse into a heap of anguished cries and  
unintelligible ranting. The doctors had taken numerous blood samples, tissue samples,  
brainwave readings, anything modern science could tell them of his condition.  
  
"So," Elisa started, hovering over Dr. Alan Pierce's backside as he stared into a small,  
glass vial of blood, "anything yet?"  
  
"We've been able to identify a toxin in Goliath's bloodstream, but as to what it is,  
and...how to cure it...well..." he stopped, unable to continue any further, and knowing  
Elisa had picked up on his sorrow for her husband's condition.  
  
"Whatever it is, has spread throughout his entire bloodstream," Dr. Trishia Weathers  
picked up the conversation, "his spinal fluid, his nervous system, and his brain. His  
immune system, though extremely powerful, is losing the battle quickly."  
  
"Oh god," Elisa's head fell into her awaiting hand, "what is it doing to him?"  
  
"It's affected almost every major part of his brain," Dr. Pierce continued, "his cerebral  
cortex, his parietal and occipital lobes, causing him to experience very powerful  
hallucinations, even his temporal lobes, which might explain the voices he keeps hearing.   
It's conceivably digging into his suppressed memories and forcing them to the surface in  
split second barrages."  
  
"This isn't an ordinary toxin, Elisa," Dr. Weathers turned to her, relieving the burden of  
her glasses from her face and tenderly rubbing the bridge of her nose, "you said this  
Sobek was a powerful...uh, magic user. Perhaps there's some magic inherent in this  
toxin as well. As it stands now, I don't think science will be able to cure your husband."  
  
"Then what will?!" Elisa angrily demanded.  
  
"I...we...well..." Trishia Weathers stuttered for a proper response.  
  
"We will keep looking Elisa," Dr. Pierce cut in, alleviating a growing fear in the slender  
woman standing behind him, "but perhaps right now, what Goliath needs, is someone to  
talk to. Someone who may be able to help fight the war going on in his head."  
  
"I've tried!" Elisa screeched. "He'll barely communicate with me as it is."  
  
"I know, that's why I'm suggesting getting a psychiatrist."  
  
Elisa sighed heavily and shook her head. "And where the hell are we going to get a  
shrink that will talk to a gargoyle?! Besides, we can't risk someone else becoming aware  
of the clan. I can take care of him, I can help him..."  
  
"Look at him!!" Dr. Pierce yelled back, immediately rising from his chair, and placing  
his pointed finger directly in her field of vision towards Goliath's bed. "He is slowly  
being consumed by a poison that as of right now, we can't even identify, let alone  
attempt to treat. He is being eaten alive by his own troubled past. He needs someone  
who can sort out these problems and perhaps ease his conscience, without being  
emotionally attached." He sighed, running a hand through his graying hair. "You are too  
involved right now, Elisa, you can't help him objectively."  
  
Elisa turned back to her husband, and slowly moved into the center of the room, eyeing  
his form, still shuddering violently within the embrace of the ivory sheets. She had  
stopped herself from trying to comfort him, knowing she was powerless to help him, and  
maybe, afraid he would once more lash out again. She stroked her bandage, her  
fingertips dragging over the course fabric, and reliving the absolute shock of her husband  
tearing her skin open in a terrifying instant. She shivered, knowing her doctor was right.   
"Who...who did you have in mind?"  
  
"I know a...friend. She's had many great successes with patients like Goliath, some even  
worse off. She's been in the business along time, and is very good at what she does."  
  
"Can she be trusted?"  
  
"I give you my word, Elisa. Besides," Dr. Pierce drawled, "I heard from Xanatos that  
you said the exact same thing about me. And look how our relationship turned out."  
  
"Thanks, Alan." said Elisa quietly, her eyes filled wide with Goliath's limp form, and  
desperately searching for any strength still remaining in her form. "I hope she can help."  
  
****************************************  
  
"I sure hope you know what time it is, Alan..."  
  
"I know, I know, I'm sorry, but this qualifies as an emergency, and I don't want to waste  
anymore time we have to."  
  
"You have a patient who needs me, I take it?"  
  
"Yes, very much. He's been a victim of a powerful psychotropic agent that has spread  
throughout his entire brain, and is bringing up extremely painful memories of the past."  
  
"And you're hoping I can soothe him in some way."  
  
"He's dangerous in his present condition. And it may provide us some time to least try to  
find a cure."  
  
"All right, I'll come."  
  
"Thanks, but...there's something I should tell you first. This man is...very unique."  
  
"How so?"  
  
"Let's just say...he's not exactly human."  
  
"If this is a joke..."  
  
"It's not, oh god it's not. Okay, I guess the best thing to do when talking to a shrink is to  
tell the truth. Well, here goes...this patient...has lavender skin, is seven and a half feet  
tall, has wings and a tail and can benchpress a city bus."  
  
"I beg your pardon?"  
  
****************************************  
  
"It's good to meet you, Mr. Xanatos."  
  
"Likewise, Dr. Blackwell." answered the billionaire, as he greeted the psychiatrist after  
stepping from the elevator. A lithe woman, appearing to be at least over forty years of  
age, with shoulder length black hair, and barely a hint of silver strands intermixed within  
the glossy raven tress. A simple gray sportcoat and skirt, with a white blouse concealed  
beneath, and her briefcase finished the display, as Xanatos examined the handsome  
woman.  
  
"Anne-Marie, please. Now, where is my patient?" the elder doctor asked almost  
hesitantly, after her phone conversation with Dr. Pierce, and his description of Goliath.  
  
"I suppose you have heard that Goliath is not your everyday patient." Xanatos almost  
formed a sly grin, always loving the expression when those who believed they were the  
dominant species on their planet, were given quite a rude awakening.  
  
"I've never treated a...gargoyle before," Dr. Blackwell replied, "I usually dismissed the  
tabloid pictures of winged creatures as just another way to sell magazines and perhaps  
elicit more tourism."  
  
"They are most definitely real, as I found out one stormy evening." Xanatos quipped,  
leading the doctor to the castle's library. He opened the doors before him and showed  
her through, where Dr. Pierce and Dr. Weathers were waiting.  
  
"Hello, Alan." she stood defiantly and thinned her eyes teasingly towards the long haired  
doctor.  
  
"Anne-Marie," he answered back, in a tone that almost belied both a delight in seeing her  
again, and an indecisiveness for accepting her help, "thanks for coming on such short  
notice."  
  
"Could I ever say no to you? Now where is my patient?"  
  
"Before you meet him, I'd like to introduce someone else, a close family member who  
can fill you in on his past."  
  
"And just who would that be?"  
  
"Me, lassie."  
  
Dr. Blackwell whirled around to the section of the library left intentionally dark, and a  
shadowed tan hide appeared into full view. With a hand placed to her chest to calm a  
rapidly beating heart, she spied upon a very large, bulky figure, wearing a leathery cape  
of folded wings, and a honorable visage hidden behind a thick, platinum beard, it's color  
lost to the ravages of time. "Well," she gasped, "you must be a gargoyle."  
  
"Aye. Did th' wings give me away, lassie? Or perhaps th' tail?"  
  
She snapped her eyes to Dr. Pierce, who answered her glare with a shrug of his shoulders,  
and a hand gesture to indicate she should perchance welcome the arrival. "I take it you  
are playing the role of history teacher tonight?" she questioned the older gargoyle,  
noticing his rather sharp talons enveloping her slender hand in a friendly greeting.  
  
"Aye. My name be Hudson, like th' river. I have known Goliath since he be hatched  
from an egg ov'r a thousand years ago."  
  
"An egg? A thousand years ago?" Dr. Blackwell widened her stare, her thoughts  
flooding with possibly a sudden compunction in coming to this ancient castle, but her  
duty was to help those in need, and so she quickly solidified her resolve. "Maybe you  
should start at the beginning..."  
  
"Aye."  
  
As Hudson led the psychiatrist to the couch, and started once more his familiar and  
detailed retelling of the gargoyle's history, Dr. Weathers leaned in to her medical  
companion and noticed his mixed expression. "Something tells me you know her better  
than you let on, Alan dear."  
  
"You could say that." he replied almost solemnly.  
  
"Old girlfriend?"  
  
"Ex-wife."  
  
Trishia's features hardened in mock pain. "Ooooh."  
  
"Tell me about it, but if there's anyone who can reach Goliath, it's either going to be  
Elisa, or her."  
  
****************************************  
  
"Come on, Big Guy, this way. It's going to be all right." Elisa whispered gently to her  
husband, leading him down the hall, towards the library.  
  
Goliath staggered slowly, as if trying to maintain a broken sense of balance, and a  
tenuous grip on his surroundings. She had finally been able to rouse her mate from his  
hospital bed, and tenderly guide him to his intended appointment with the doctor. He  
dragged his hand along the stone walls, languidly traversing the hallways with every step  
a challenge to be undertaken, and Elisa clenched tightly to his other arm. He was deathly  
silent, his eyes drooping, threatening to fall closed and send him hurtling back to the  
battle of voices in his mind.  
  
"C'mon...that's it...nice and slowly..." Elisa urged him on, and soon seeing Angela and a  
few others of the clan waiting before them at the library doors. "It's okay, everything  
will be all right." They stopped at the doors, with Goliath hardly aware of his daughter  
staring into a barren landscape of charcoal, as his once gleaming eyes had become  
tarnished and faded.  
  
"Father?" she called to him, and he never answered her plea. She turned away and buried  
herself in Broadway's shoulder.  
  
"Goliath." Elisa demanded his attention in a severely exacting voice, and finally he  
looked down to his mate. "We need to go into the library. There's a doctor, Dr.  
Anne-Marie Blackwell, who will talk with you. Anything you wish to speak  
about...anything."  
  
He cocked his head, striving to understand. "...all right..."  
  
"Good. Now come on." She flung the doors open and pulled the lavender giant into the  
room, towards the couch. Across from him, sat Dr. Blackwell, watching with great  
concern as Elisa showed Goliath where to sit.  
  
"Hello, Goliath." she said, greeting him in a pleasant voice.  
  
He looked up to see her observing his every sluggish move and body movement.   
"...hello...you...are the doctor...the one who will talk to me..."  
  
"Yes. I want to help you. We all do." Dr. Blackwell looked up to Elisa, signaling with  
nothing but a simple click of her eyes to the doors, that she now needed to leave.  
  
Elisa swallowed her reluctance of leaving her husband, and drifted upon his shoulder, a  
swath of her copper hand, her warm touch connecting with his own inviting skin. "I have  
to go now, Goliath," she leaned in and whispered into his ear, seeing him turn with a rare  
look of fear to her, "but I'll be right outside. The doctor will help you. I promise."  
  
"All right." he returned, his voice growing in strength. Elisa departed from the room, and  
left the gargoyle to meet the doctor's eyes. They were sitting directly apart from each  
other, Goliath on the couch, Dr. Blackwell in the opposing recliner, a relaxed position of  
a crossed leg and holding a notepad in her lap. The room had been emptied of all light,  
save for one small lamp to the side, and the bay window, creating a stark contrast of  
muted color and devouring shadow. Goliath continued to study his observer, as she had  
not taken her eyes off him the entire time. "Anne-Marie," he started, "is a very beautiful  
name."  
  
She smiled. "Ah, so the Goliath I've heard so much about is still in there somewhere."  
  
"Somewhere..." he agreed. "So...you wish for me to speak?"  
  
"I am here to listen, Goliath. I want to know what's happening. I was brought here to  
help you. Your clan is very worried."  
  
Goliath rubbed a taloned hand upon his face, easing tired eyes and stressed muscles. "I  
hear...voices...I see my dead brothers and sisters..."  
  
"What do they say?"  
  
"They wish for me to...destroy my clan...my family..."  
  
"Why?"  
  
Goliath struggled for his answer. "I...don't know. They blame me for leaving them."  
  
"Did you?"  
  
Goliath immediately lifted his head. "No! Yes...but..."  
  
"But what?"  
  
"I told them to stay at the castle, so they would be safe...I only wanted to keep them  
safe."  
  
"And then what happened?" The question she knew, but wanted the answer in Goliath's  
own words.  
  
"I...I arrived back to find their shattered forms, scattered about the place I had come to  
call home. My brothers...my sisters...destroyed...I could have done something..."  
  
"It seems if you had stayed at the castle, you would been been destroyed as well." she  
replied, her voice never wavering, never showing a trace of emotion.  
  
"I should have taken them with me."  
  
"You had no idea they would be betrayed from within. It wasn't your fault."  
  
"Yes," he rasped, fighting back the tears, "it was. I was their leader. They trusted me to  
keep them safe. I should have moved our clan from the castle...found a new  
home...somewhere safe...away...away from...from..."  
  
"From the humans?"  
  
"They never wanted us there, none of them. My only human friend betrayed us...and my  
angel love...betrayed us all..."  
  
"So you blame them now."  
  
"No. It was me. My failure resulted in Demona's hatred consuming her. I could have  
reached her, made her see what goodness can exist in humans. I could have reached  
them both, before..." Goliath drew back into himself, his wings plunging down around  
him, and his clenched fists raising to his furrowed brow. "I failed them..."  
  
"It seems, Goliath, that you had no part in Wyvern's downfall. From what I heard from  
Hudson, it seems you served as leader with distinction, courage, honor, compassion, and  
an unending quest to unite your race with humankind."  
  
"A quest which cost me my mate, and my clan."  
  
"She made her choice, as did the captain of the guard, and they paid for their mistakes.   
Your want for peace between the races was a noble and just pursuit."  
  
"It was utterly futile..."  
  
"Perhaps then, when fear and superstition filled the hearts of man, but now, well, your  
newest daughter is half human. A very big step in a very right direction, wouldn't you  
say?" She lowered her eyes and head to meet his, like an adult addressing a child, and  
found the giant peering from his hands, between the assemblage of lavender fingers.   
"I've met your baby girl, she's very beautiful."  
  
"She is one of the greatest things to ever have happened to me in this new world."  
  
"This new world..." Anne-Marie repeated his words wistfully, never having fully  
understood how this clan of tenth century gargoyles viewed her modern world until now.   
"You seemed to have made your place. Found a home. Created a new family."  
  
"...family...my family..."  
  
****************************************  
  
"I don't think we should be watching this," remarked Todd, shifting relentlessly in his  
chair, "it's kind of personal, isn't it?"  
  
"We all have to be here." answered Elisa, as she glued her pensive gaze to the television  
screen. "Dr. Blackwell wanted all of us to see this, to see what pain Goliath carries  
around with him. To understand him better."  
  
The entire clan had been gathered in a room on the opposite side of the hallway leading  
to the library, placed in chairs and standing alongside, watching with fascination the  
conversation taking place just down the corridor. The whole of the clan, the Xanatos  
family, the mutates, and even Demona had gathered around the image of their friend,  
recorded on a security camera and pouring his tortured soul out for all to hear, at the  
doctor's insistence.  
  
"I never knew," Annika whispered, "I never knew he had so much buried within him."  
  
"None of us knew," Elisa said with an air of sadness, holding a sleeping Trinity close to  
her chest, "none of us could ever imagine living a life such as his. Such a burden to  
carry, such a weight, tearing at him night after night. But he never showed it, not to me,  
not to anyone."  
  
Demona sat silently near the back, watching her former lover burrow deeper into the  
embrace of the couch, blaming himself for what she knew he could ever claim to be his  
fault. It was she, and the captain of the guard, who destroyed their lives a millennium  
ago. And yet, he had accepted her back into the fold, welcomed her presence in his  
home, even going as far to allow his newborn daughter to be cared for by someone who  
had dirtied her hands with innocent blood.  
  
She looked upon her only child, clinging to Broadway's frame, forced to have observed  
her father break down to a withered shell of his former self. The rest around her, the  
survivors of the massacre, the new additions to the clan, the mutates, the Xanatoses,  
filled their eyes with Goliath's butchered soul, torn open by the hands of a toxin running  
rampant through his body. Yet none of them looked to her, to condemn her for what he  
felt, he experienced, all those years ago. A welling of utter consuming remorse built up  
in the pit of her stomach, and she felt the urge to retch, yet when feeling the mild touch  
of her daughter's hand make contact with her arm, she forced a smile at the love shown  
to her by the one who brought her back from the brink.  
  
****************************************  
  
"Goliath, I want to talk about your clan."  
  
"My...clan?" he mumbled the words through his lips.  
  
"Yes. They are very important to you, aren't they?"  
  
"They are my family, my closest friends, my children...they are one of the few remaining  
clans in this world. They...are a part of me. To lose them would be to lose myself."  
  
Dr. Blackwell looked to her notepad, scrawled with unintelligible writing, a language  
known only to her, and looked to her list of names provided by Hudson. "I'll give you a  
name, and I want you to tell me about that person. How you really feel about them."  
  
"I...don't know..."  
  
"Please. I need your truthful insight on the people who share your life."  
  
Goliath looked up to her, and his dark eyes glistened with an intellect and grace she  
hoped she would be fortunate enough to see. "Yes..." was his only reply.  
  
"Good. Let's begin. Hudson..."  
  
"...My oldest friend. I based my life upon his teachings of peace and tolerance. He  
trusted me enough to make me his second in command, and guided me when I became  
the leader. He's always been there for me, with advice and experience of a thousand  
years."  
  
"Brooklyn."  
  
"The perfect choice for my second. Though headstrong, he is extremely clever, and  
quick to take charge in battle. Adapts to every situation, and will one day make a fine  
leader. He has matured somewhat due to his journey through time, and like always, only  
met the new challenge with determination and a fierce will."  
  
"Sata."  
  
"I am glad Brooklyn has finally found someone to call love. She counters his wild nature  
with elegance and dignity, and possesses a quiet strength that never ceases to amaze me.   
She has come to call this time and this castle home, and is a very welcome addition to the  
clan."  
  
"Graeme and Arianna."  
  
"A younger generation, so full of life and wondrous spirit. They look at their world  
through innocent eyes, and see only what pleasures and festivities can be reaped and  
indulged in. Their laughter fills the halls of the castle with pleasant sounds I have truly  
missed. They are our future, and through them, will we live on."  
  
"Angela."  
  
"My firstborn daughter. I once thought I had lost her, and the rest of her siblings to the  
unforgiving clutch of time. But with the help of humans who once thought of my race as  
abominations or monsters, she was raised to be a self-reliant, strong, and courageous  
woman, who opened my stubborn eyes to a child's love. I would be lost without her."  
  
"Broadway."  
  
"A fine choice for Angela, and I know he will always be there for her. Caring,  
understanding, gentle. His culinary skills are unmatched, as is his ability to forgive. He  
will one day take his place among our kind to lead them to a brighter future."  
  
"Lexington."  
  
"Perhaps the smartest man I have ever met. He confronted this modern world with a  
curiosity to rival that of the great inventors I have read about. He is always dissecting a  
new machine or reading about what mankind has created in their quest to conquer the  
natural world. He is my guide for this era of technology, and helps me to understand  
what can sometimes elude me. I hope one day he will find a way to deal with the pain he  
has inside of him, and will find someone to share his life with."  
  
"Desdemona and Othello."  
  
"My brother and sister, a fierce hunter and a gentle care-taker. Brought back from the  
dead to rejoin our clan. They were one of the first of my generation to be mated, and I  
often take solace in seeing them together. To see how love can survive even death and  
oblivion, and create a path to guide one home, is truly reassuring indeed."  
  
"Shadow."  
  
"A man of honor, and a warrior born. He was raised by a human, and because of that  
unique relationship, sees humans as gentle creatures and knows there is always a chance  
for peace. A grim demeanor belies his kind-hearted soul, and he is always there to care  
for Delilah. They are maybe the perfect choice for one another, and I hope to see their  
relationship blossom even further."  
  
"Annika."  
  
"It has been my pleasure to watch her grow from a shy, fearful girl to fierce, beautiful  
woman, who cares more for others than herself. She is intelligent, considerate and  
patient, though sometimes extremely jealous of others crowding upon her boyfriend. The  
man who gave her a life to be lived with all the rewards it can bring."  
  
"Todd."  
  
"Annoying, to a point where I sometimes want to...punch him...very hard, but he is  
always there to help lift your spirits. He risked his life for the woman he loved, and  
allowed her to share his world. I hope he and Annika are very happy together, and seeing  
them gives me great hope for the rest of his race. It is refreshing to have another  
interspecies pairing around, it doesn't feel as if I am alone in the fact that I fell in love  
with a human."  
  
"Demona."  
  
****************************************  
  
Upon the mention of her name, the immortal ducked her head, noticing the stray glares  
collecting on her seated locale. She compulsively rubbed her hands together and closed  
her eyes, waiting for what Goliath would say about her. A hatred swelling for a  
millennium perchance now to be released in a torrential wave of emotion. She  
shuddered at the thought. Goliath had been the last hurdle to be encountered, as he had  
been the most affected, the most injured, by her betrayal.  
  
Her thoughts flowed tumultuously through her subconscious, piercing the back of her  
skull, a flood of memories of her conflict with her ex-mate. She held her breath and  
waited for his response. He had stalled, as if trying to find the correct words to describe  
her baneful actions, the intentions of destruction and death she once had. She found it  
hard to believe, that she wanted Goliath's praise once again, his approval, his friendship.   
She desired what she had when but a young innocent gargess living in the hills of  
Scotland, before the centuries long metamorphosis into the azure-skinned angel of death.  
  
****************************************  
  
"Goliath?" Dr. Blackwell asked again, knowing she had touched on a precarious subject.  
  
"Demona. Once that name...had only brought me pain. Memories of her betrayal, and  
her actions when we first awakened. But now...I find...I just want my friend back. I  
could talk to her about anything. I miss what we had. I know we cannot go back to what  
once was, nor do I wish to, I have gained too much. Yet, this castle lost apart of itself  
when she left, and now with her back...home, it feels...right."  
  
"David Xanatos."  
  
"At times I feel as if I want to rip his throat out, and then, give him my most profound  
gratitude for offering us so much. He gave us back our home, he helped defend against  
the Unseelie, he found a doctor for Trinity, to ensure a safe birth, and now guarantees her  
an even safer future. He has succeeded in atoning for his actions of the past, with maybe  
one last hurdle to be jumped before total redemption."  
  
"Elisa..."  
  
A smile graced Goliath's lips for the first time tonight, and grew in size and strength as  
the lavender giant filled his eyes with images of her beauty and elegance. "My beautiful  
Elisa. My very essence taken exquisite form in lush ebony hair, glorious bronze skin,  
chocolate brown eyes and a courage and determination that cannot be rivaled by anyone.   
She has fought against all odds to love me, and through it all, the fights, the battles, the  
near death experiences, still manages to put a smile on my face. She is my mate, my best  
friend, and the mother of my children. She is my very reason for being, the soulmate  
perhaps I have been searching for my entire existence."  
  
"It seems you have found so much more here in the new world." Dr. Blackwell idly  
commented, clicking her pen in a rhythmic tapping upon her notepad.  
  
"Things have a way of balancing out, I suppose." Goliath spat out, his mood immediately  
foundering and seizing his forehead in a grasp of violet talons. Fanged teeth clenched  
tight enough to crush a steel pipe, as Goliath fought against an unseen pain.  
  
"A headache?"  
  
Goliath violently shivered, and did his best to maintain what he now had to fight for, his  
own mental state. "Yes," he wheezed, "a side effect of the...toxin."  
  
"I want to hear more about your old clan, Goliath, from Scotland."  
  
"I have told you already."  
  
"I want to know about them. All of them. What they were like, what they did. I know  
it's a sensitive issue but..."  
  
"You have no idea how sensitive it is, doctor." Goliath menaced unintentionally, his eyes  
altering from his usual softened intentions, and becoming as hard as steel.  
  
"I don't mean to make you angry. Far from it." Dr. Blackwell quickly calmed Goliath's  
frayed nerves, noticing a sudden shift in body language, as even the smallest of muscles  
beneath his leathery hide rippled with bonecrushing power. His mood had abruptly  
switched again, from the whimpering child to the abrasive beast. "All I want is for you to  
relieve the burden. Talk to me."  
  
Goliath relented and quelled his growing anger. "It was a happy time. Even the battles  
with Viking hordes and meeting with discrimination and prejudice, we lived a good life,  
together. We were a clan of over one hundred gargoyles, who wanted nothing more from  
life than to exist peacefully with the humans living there."  
  
"Did you have any special relationships with anyone else? Besides Demona, Hudson or  
the trio?"  
  
Goliath still fought against the questioning thrown to him. Almost as if he had to seal his  
lips to prevent any words from escaping, from opening a chapter in his life he had closed  
and tried to forget.  
  
Dr. Blackwell especially noticed this, knowing he desperately needed to speak his mind,  
to set free what he had tightly bound within the deepest confines of his troubled soul. "I  
know you want to talk about this, Goliath. Don't fight it."  
  
"My clever sister." His swift answer almost caught the doctor off guard. "My joke  
telling brother. There were others..."  
  
"Who?"  
  
"Another. She...was of the generation before me. She was a watcher of the eggs, my  
first memory is of her, caring for me in the rookery. She paid special attention to me,  
even though..."  
  
"Even though it wasn't the gargoyle way for the elders to look upon the hatchlings any  
differently from anyone else." she answered for him, this time surprising her patient at  
her own knowledge of gargoyle custom.  
  
"I...don't know why she looked upon me differently than the others of my generation."  
  
"I think you do."  
  
Goliath leaned into the couch, crossing his arms and presenting forth a scowl that would  
scare off any attacker, yet Anne-Marie remained firm, mimicking Goliath's own stance.   
Her pen commenced to tap again, a shrill rapping of plastic upon wood fiber, purposely  
incensing Goliath's great hearing and his irritable disposition. "She...we were..."  
  
...goliath...  
  
Goliath froze in place. The voices had returned, bringing with them an unrelenting pain.   
"No..." Goliath fumbled in torment to the floor, grasping his hands to his head.  
  
...goliath...betrayer...murderer...  
  
"No!! Please!! STOP!!!" Goliath howled his suffering, encompassing the entire room in  
a gargoyle's earsplitting rage, his wings flared out to their furhtest reach. "Leave me  
alone!!"  
  
"Goliath!" Dr. Blackwell called to him, sliding from her chair in an effort to catch him.   
She tried her best to steady his shaking form, yet compared to her patient, her human  
body could never draw enough strength to help effectively. "Goliath, block them out!   
It's the toxin! Nothing more!"  
  
...she lies...she wants to betray you like all humans...  
  
"No!!" Goliath huddled in a quivering mass on the floor, every muscle in his body  
contracting beyond what their limit would allow. He choked on his tongue and saliva  
and tore into his own facial skin with his talons, as spastic contortions surged through  
him. "Aaaacckkgh..."  
  
"Goliath..." The witness to a debilitating disease, Dr. Blackwell opened her brown eyes  
wide to the gargoyle before her, sensing through her fingertips, the pure adrenaline  
coursing within his arteries and muscles, sinew and flesh, feeding his system and  
blocking all conscious thought. "...oh my god."  
  
...she is a betrayer...she must die...they all must die... The voices swelled in his head,  
echoing painfully within the walls of his skull, and Goliath's agony brought tears to his  
eyes.  
  
"...no..."  
  
...destroy her...DESTROY HER...  
  
"RRRRAAAAAAUUUUUUUGGHH!!!!" In a mere second, Goliath's blood-soaked  
talons were around Dr. Blackwell's neck, and he lifted her from the floor. He stood to  
his full height, and outstretched his arm, with the human's delicate body hanging limp  
within his grip.  
  
"...goliath..." she let out a muffled lament, as her neck was swallowed in the void of his  
hand. "...don't...do this...don't let the...voices win..." An amazing feat she  
accomplished, even as her life perhaps drew to a close, she continued her efforts to help  
her patient, knowing from their earlier conversation and Hudson's kind words, he was  
not this man, this monster she saw before her.  
  
"BETRAYER!!!" Goliath bellowed, slowly increasing the pressure on her neck. His  
judgment destroyed, his compassion fissured and broken, his rage was all that was left  
and his one devouring thought was now to kill the traitorous creature completely at his  
mercy. "DIE!!!"  
  
(((NO))) The soothing voice had returned. (((if you kill her Goliath, you shall regret it for  
the rest of your life)))  
  
"...what?" Goliath took heed of this command, this calming influence upon him.   
"...I...do not wish to...who are you?..."  
  
(((a friend...like the woman you hold in your hand)))  
  
Goliath's eyes returned with the luster and sheen of intelligence and reason, and met the  
fearful eyes of Dr. Blackwell, still struggling to release herself. "...d-doctor..."  
  
(((she is here to help you)))  
  
...she's a betrayer...kill her... The war ensued in his mind, for control of his body.  
  
(((no...listen to me...you are not this man...you are gentle and caring and you care deeply  
for the humans...and this doctor)))  
  
"Who are you?" Goliath implored to the soothing voice. "Why are you trying to help  
me?"  
  
(((because I love you, Goliath...you know who I am...you remember me, even when you  
were just a hatchling in the rookery of Wyvern)))  
  
"You..." Goliath now had identified the voice, a link to his early past and a recollection  
of his most cherished family members. "It is you, isn't it?"  
  
"...who...who is it, Goliath?" Dr. Blackwell asked, attempting to forge the connection she  
once had with him.  
  
"She...was..."  
  
...NO...YOU WILL OBEY ONLY US...KILL HER...KILL THEM ALL... A frenzy of  
fractured souls growled within his subconscious, with the terrifying gravel and scraping  
of a nightmare given the breath of life.  
  
(((no...please...my son)))  
  
...KILL HER...KILL THEM ALL...  
  
Goliath's brow moved down, and his eyes completely clouded over, leaving a milky  
white, before being absorbed by his angered bleached glow. He coupled his glare with  
the doctor's and without uttering a single word, informed her through the pressure of his  
grip, that she would forever cease her breathing by his hand. Then finally, the threat  
would erupt from his frothing mouth. "...die..."  
  
"Not tonight!" A blur of crimson sliced through the air, as Brooklyn lept towards his  
leader, and using both fists, slammed down on Goliath's arm. The force of the blow  
loosened his grip and Dr. Blackwell fell free, landing in a heap on the library floor.   
Brooklyn immediately landed, swiveled around and met the lavender giant head on.   
"This ends now, Goliath. You're a danger to yourself and anyone else who crosses your  
path."  
  
...your own clan now attacks you...they are betrayers...just like your angel love...kill  
them...  
  
"BETRAYERS!!!" Goliath lunged for the smaller gargoyle, with his claws raised for a  
killing blow.  
  
Brooklyn stood defiantly, and placed his arms to his side, as if expecting salvation to  
come and save him from the wrath of the most powerful gargoyle alive. And indeed it  
did, as Shadow emerged from the deepest recesses of the library, and toppled the  
lavender leader with a massive strike. They careened into the furniture, bringing a spray  
of wood splinters into the air, as the mahogany coffee table shattered beneath their great  
weight. Hand to hand they wrestled, bared teeth and flaring eyes, and steel rending  
power.  
  
"I WILL DESTROY YOU!!!" Goliath cried, as he fought against Shadow in a deadly  
clash.  
  
The others of the clan flooded into the library, and Elisa fought her way through to the  
forefront, only to fill her frightful gaze with her husband combating against her family  
friend. His eyes had emptied from their normal loving radiance, and what had been left  
behind in the absence, pierced to her soul. "Goliath?"  
  
Angela checked on the doctor, sprawled on the floor, and clasping a hand about her  
bruised throat, clearing her passageway with heavy coughing. "Are you all right?"  
  
"I-I'm fine...fine...it's your father who needs help." she answered in a grated breath.  
  
"I know, we heard. The voices have returned."  
  
"Yes, but there's something else. Another voice is trying to break through, to help him.   
Someone from his past." She was helped to her feet and looked upon Goliath, now being  
held in both Shadow's and Othello's arms.  
  
"Who?"  
  
"I don't know. It was a female...perhaps someone very special to him."  
  
"That doesn't matter right now," commented Brooklyn from their side, "he's going to kill  
someone. We have to get him locked up. Xanatos has a special cell in the Eyrie, where  
Dr. Pierce can monitor him."  
  
"He shouldn't be slammed in a cage right now," Dr. Blackwell argued, "he needs help.   
We can still reach him."  
  
"Goliath has the power to destroy everything he comes across. He almost killed you. If  
we don't get him under control, he may hurt someone in this clan, and I'm not going to  
let that happen." Brooklyn quickly approached the lavender giant, barely contained by  
Shadow, Othello, Broadway and Hudson. The scarlet gargoyle looked down upon  
Goliath, as he was forced to his knees.  
  
He was still foaming at the mouth, and breathing like a wounded animal. With every  
gulp of air, he let loose the rasp of death, and clicked his clouded eyes to his second.   
"...you will die..."  
  
"So I've heard." Brooklyn answered the threat with a surprising aspect of calm. "You  
need help, Goliath, and I'm sorry we have to do this but..." He stepped back and allowed  
Dr. Pierce to slip by, with a syringe in hand. Goliath's head was wrenched back and his  
neck exposed by Othello, and the doctor jammed the needle into his jugular. Goliath  
screamed, sending a shiver down Elisa's spine, having to watch as her husband grew  
drowsy and became limp in his family's arms.  
  
"Bring him." Dr. Pierce whispered. "With all the adrenaline coursing through him, that  
sedative won't hold for long." Othello and Shadow hoisted Goliath upon their shoulders  
and dragged him behind the quickly retreating doctor.  
  
They passed by Elisa, who reached out with her trembling hand, but stopped just before  
contacting with his skin. As they pulled him from the room, she had managed to keep  
her tears at bay, and fought against the demons who had so plagued her the last couple of  
months. Fear, doubt, pain, threatening to overwhelm her, vowing to destroy what  
happiness she had finally found after so long.  
  
****************************************  
  
"Goliath?" Elisa called to him. "Goliath...wake up." Her voice became blurred through  
almost a foot thick of titanium shielding and Plexiglas windows that was her husband's  
cell. She peered with chocolate eyes through the portal, at the limp form of Goliath, left  
in the middle of the cold, metal floor. He had been placed in this specially designed cell,  
located on a lower floor of the Eyrie building. "Goliath?" she called again, and breathed  
a small sigh of relief when he at last began to stir.  
  
Goliath crawled from his entanglement of wings and wavered to his feet, involuntary  
muscle twitches signaling his impressive immune system sloughing off the remainder of  
the sedative from his body. He stared at the farthest wall with clouded vision, and even  
through the solid walls, detected a presence just beyond.  
  
"Goliath...it's me," Elisa spoke even louder into the speaker feeding the cell, "are  
you...you?"  
  
He never answered, instead electing to wander from the windows and towards the wall,  
resting upon the slick steel surface.  
  
"It's his guilt..."  
  
Elisa picked up bits of conversation resounding behind her, and she reluctantly left the  
windows to join the rest of the clan and the doctors. The voice belonged to Dr.  
Blackwell, involved in a serious dialogue of her husband's condition with Dr. Pierce.  
  
"...his guilt is the driving force behind this toxin's power." she continued. "He hears the  
voices of those he believes he failed a thousand years ago, and then further compounded  
with his self imposed blame of recent events." She noticed Elisa's approach and turned  
to her. "Elisa's assault and near-rape, the death of the clones, the attack on the castle,  
Sobek's attempt on your life and Trinity's. It has all been piling up for months, years,  
and Goliath's carefully guarded emotional reserve has been practically destroyed."  
  
"And then he tries to kill us." Brooklyn snapped back, crossing his arms and scowling  
towards her.  
  
"It's the toxin," Demona cut in from the side, "whatever Sobek slipped him, is practically  
brimming over with magic. Very powerful magic. It twists his memories and cognitive  
thoughts into vengeful, hateful feelings."  
  
"No shit," Brooklyn drawled, "what can we do to cure him?"  
  
"As you know, it is extremely dangerous to mix magics. Drastic measures may need to  
be taken." Demona turned to Dr. Blackwell, and caught her attention with an arm to her  
shoulder. "You almost reached him, when he attacked you. Just what exactly did you  
do?"  
  
"Nothing." she answered. "I did nothing. It seems Goliath has an ally inside his head.   
There is someone fighting with him, calming him enough to bring him back...if just for a  
moment."  
  
"Who?" Elisa inquired.  
  
"I don't know, yet she seems to have quite an effect on him. He mentioned someone  
from his past, a female gargoyle, of the generation before his, who would often take care  
of him when he was young."  
  
Hudson, far from the group, perked up, stroking his beard and lost in his recollection of  
his younger days. When Goliath was but a child, barely above his knee, Hudson would  
watch as his lavender rookery sister would favor the hatchling in a way unlike that of  
gargoyle tradition.  
  
"But I don't know how long she can last. She seems to be fighting a losing battle."  
  
"Obviously." Brooklyn whispered, pacing the length of the area outside the cell, and  
glancing through the windows to his leader, still motionless at the far end of the jail.   
"I've never, ever seen him like this. He was nothing but a mindless animal, ready to kill  
anyone he set his sights on."  
  
"No..." Elisa cursed beneath her breath, "he would never kill the people he loves."  
  
"Elisa..."  
  
"NO!!!" she screamed, whirling around to face the clan, tears flooding her face and her  
fists squeezed so tight, her nails almost drew blood from the palm. "He is the most  
caring, tender, peaceful man on this planet!! He would never do anything to hurt us. He  
will fight this...shit floating through his body. He'll come back to us...to me."  
  
"Elisa, we have to be reasonable..." Dr. Blackwell sighed her disbelief.  
  
"You have no idea what we went through!! You can't even imagine what forces we have  
fought against, what things we have seen, what we have done...to finally be united  
together in love! You have no idea the power our devotion brings to us. Reasonable? I  
was reasonable six years ago. I never believed in magical creatures or mythical beings,  
until he came into my life. I never believed I could experience a love like what Goliath  
gives to me, and I'll be damned if I lose him to some bastard psychotic and his little  
poisons!!"  
  
Dr. Blackwell widened her stare and backed off, abruptly closing her mouth and averting  
another outburst of pent-up rage this slender woman before her eyes could summon.  
  
"We are going to find a cure, I promise you that." Her tone demanded a finality to any  
doubt still lingering and she turned to the immortal behind her, who was carefully  
examining the computer readout. "Demona, what can we do?"  
  
"I believe I may know, but it will require a spell to be cast. We cannot fight this toxin  
the conventional way. To waste any time trying to find a cure will only succeed in the  
toxin's intended effects, Goliath's total submission to his guilt and anger. It may result in  
permanent brain damage."  
  
"What kind of spell?"  
  
"I have one in mind, that involves fighting your husband's feelings head on. To cure  
what he feels as his own fault, will make it easier for him to fight back himself. But...I  
need Goliath's help as well. He needs to be conscious, aware of our plan, to allow us  
access to his most intimate thoughts."  
  
"We need to pull him back as it were," Elisa echoed Demona's thought, "if just for a  
second."  
  
"And the second we step into that cage, he'll most likely rip us in two." Dr. Pierce added.  
  
"Demona, what do you need?"  
  
"A book with the proper spell, that is all."  
  
"Go get it."  
  
"I'll be back soon." Demona slipped from the room, intent on heading for her manor.  
  
"And I'll get Goliath ready." Elisa headed for the armored door, leading into the cell, but  
found her way blocked by Dr. Pierce.  
  
"I'm sorry, but I can't let you go in there."  
  
"He won't hurt me." said Elisa, eyeing the arm bracing her from moving any farther.  
  
"He almost killed Anne-Marie. He may kill you."  
  
"No he won't."  
  
Dr. Pierce sucked in his anger and what swear words he could free upon this woman's  
incessant stubbornness, all the while shaking his head. "As a doctor...and as your friend,  
I can't let you go in there. I can't let any of my patients become hurt because of my  
actions...or inaction."  
  
Elisa and Dr. Pierce squared off, in a war of rigid stares, until a crimson hand came upon  
the doctor's shoulder and forcefully pulled him from Elisa's path.  
  
"Let her go." Brooklyn told the doctor.  
  
"What?! Are you nuts? You saw what Goliath did earlier...if he gets his hands on  
Elisa..."  
  
"There is a bond between Goliath and Elisa that nothing can bend, break, or destroy,"  
Brooklyn started, staring into the cell, "he would rather die himself than hurt the woman  
he loves. If there is anyone on this planet that can bring Goliath back, it's Elisa." He  
reached for the keypad, punched in the electronic code, and upon hearing the hydraulic  
hiss of the locks releasing, pulled open the outer door. "Bring him home, Elisa."  
  
She smiled to her old friend, and stepped into the small chamber, a staging area just  
before the jail cell containing her husband. The door slammed shut behind her and  
locked into place, a suffocating atmosphere within the steel enclosure. A soft emerald  
glow above the next door, announcing to her in the ice cold beckoning of technology,  
that she may proceed. Taking one last deep breath to steady her nerves, she slowly  
pushed the barrier from her way.  
  
She moved into the cell, and locked the door immediately upon seeing Goliath's wings  
twitch at the change in his environment. Barely fifty feet from fifty feet, a perfect cube,  
with nothing to mark the extent of the walls or ceiling. A glistening of titanium alloy, a  
stark comparison from the wondrous shade of lavender from her husband's skin.   
"Goliath." she whispered to him, standing a mere ten feet away from the seven foot,  
seven inch, giant gargoyle. "It's me, Elisa."  
  
He barely turned his head, only to catch her from the corner of his dark eyes. His  
breathing was deafening, she could hear every powerful animal snort released into the  
cell's stale, re-circulated air. His self inflicted injuries traveled the length of his face,  
lacerations colored a deep vermilion, down his forehead, cheeks and chin. "You  
shouldn't have come..."  
  
"Why not?" she replied, hearing the traces of malevolence carried in every word.  
  
"I must obey the voices."  
  
"You don't have to...you can fight them."  
  
"No. I can't."  
  
"Yes," she hesitantly moved closer, her steps practiced and cautious, "you are stronger  
than they are. You can win."  
  
A high-pitched screeching erupted into the cell, causing all of Elisa's skin to goosebump.   
Goliath scraped his talons down the steel surface, and the corner he had chosen to linger  
within, lit up with the platinum glare of his eyes. "You shouldn't have come." The same  
words uttered as before, yet a tone of terminality which Elisa was beginning to fear.  
  
"Why not?" she repeated her words as well, trying to find what remained of her husband.   
But tonight, at this moment, she was about to find that he had been suppressed, and  
replaced by the sum of his fury and madness magnified many times.  
  
"Because," he turned his gaze to her, "I am going to kill you."  
  
  
To be continued... 


	4. Breakdown Part 4: The Battle Within

  
  
35 - "Breakdown Part 4: The Battle Within"  
Originally Written: January 8th, 2001  
  
She would have perhaps seen her own gruesome demise appear before her eyes, as she  
gazed upon evolution's greatest triumph tramp to her standing stead. The ground shook  
with every one of his heavy footfalls, and she found the light grow dim, snared within his  
massive, twisted shadow. Elisa slowly looked up, to see her husband cast the impression  
of death upon her.  
  
Moments ago, he growled to her a warning of her impending fate at his hands, and now,  
with the toxin having taken complete control, was quite possibly willing to carry out his  
threat. They stood mere inches apart, Goliath tasting her fear with every ragged breath,  
and incensing the primal animal instinct that had set his species apart from man.  
  
Elisa didn't move, didn't flinch, never showed her dread to the beast before her. As she  
knew Goliath, the friend, the lover, the husband, the father, had been forced behind a  
wall of rage, and sealed in his own guilt. And she would not leave his side, until that  
man was returned to her.  
  
"I will kill you, betrayer!!" he snarled, his warm breath flowing past Elisa's face and  
possessing enough power to push back what hair fell over her shoulders.  
  
"No...you won't." she hissed back.  
  
"And what makes you so sure, human scum?" he replied, surprising the human before  
him, at his allowance of time for her to speak her mind.  
  
"Because I love you, and I know you love me."  
  
"Don't be so sure." With the swiftness of the wind, he grabbed her neck, much like the  
poor doctor he had assaulted less than an hour before.  
  
...that's it...kill her...KILL HER... The voices cheered his actions with a chilling  
merriment, taking absolute sickening pleasure in seeing the slender woman hoisted from  
the ground, her neck pinched in his vice-like grip.  
  
****************************************  
  
"Shit!" Dr. Pierce cried, watching in horror as Elisa was captured by her husband. "He's  
going to kill her..."  
  
"No," Brooklyn snatched the doctor's arm, before he could enter the cell with his syringe  
of powerful sedative at the ready, "he won't. Goliath won't do anything to hurt her."  
  
"He's got her neck just like Anne-Marie, he's going to..."  
  
Brooklyn grasped both sides of the human's face and pulled it close to his own scarlet  
beak. "Listen and listen good, doc. Elisa will reach him. She will pull him back. I'm  
not guessing, I'm not hoping, I know this for a fact. He will not hurt her."  
  
Dr. Pierce slowed his breathing, and nodded his acceptance of the gargoyle's  
commanding faith. Brooklyn let go and allowed them both to turn their attention to the  
window into the cell.  
  
****************************************  
  
Elisa grappled to maintain her composure, as hands that once roamed her body in so  
many a loving touch and having administered gentle massages in her time of need, were  
now seconds from ripping her esophagus from her body. "You won't...do it," she  
wheezed, "you...can't do it." She pleaded for his life, hoping she could reach him.  
  
Goliath stalled, locking his gaze with hers, seeing this fragile being struggle against his  
grip. The woman who pledged her life to him, who bonded her soul with his own, the  
woman he gained strength from every moment they were together. And through that  
connection, he found the power to relent his anger, if only for an instant. "I...I can't..."  
  
...kill her...kill her...KILL HER...  
  
(((no...you must not...she is your wife...your mate...I beg of you, Goliath...you can't allow  
this to happen...you can't allow)))  
  
...KILL HER...  
  
"No...my Elisa...I cannot..."  
  
"Goliath!" Elisa called over the static of voices in his head. "You can fight...you can  
win."  
  
"I...can't. I don't know what...is real, anymore."  
  
"Remember...who I am, what we...mean to each other. You know I'm real." She  
strenuously guided her hands along his arm, letting her warmth flow to him. "Remember  
all the good times we shared. Don't let this poison take them all away." Her gaze of  
chocolate washed upon his clouded eyes, and they finally released from their milky  
confines. "That's it. You know...who I am."  
  
The lavender giant conceded and loosened his grip some, enough to allow Elisa a fresh  
breath of air through her once constricted throat. "I...need help...I can't fight alone..."  
  
"You're not alone," she placed her most heartfelt emotion into the simple sentence, a  
demanding tone issuing forth the absolute finality of her love, "I am with you...always."   
Elisa was released and dropped to the floor, wavering to one knee and rubbing soothingly  
about her throat. She looked up as Goliath plunged into a heap, and fell to his backside,  
on the verge of tears. Elisa watched as he lost what emotional reserves were left in place,  
and wailed his agony for all to hear.  
  
"I don't know what's real anymore..."  
  
She simply stared on in somewhat an air of disbelief, as his grief flowed freely before her  
eyes. His mindfully sheltered emotions were rampaging out of control, and could now  
not be contained any longer. And her actions next would completely surprise those  
watching in the examination booth, as she leaned over and pulled off her shoes.  
  
****************************************  
  
"What the hell is she doing?" asked Talon from the cell's exterior room.  
  
Brooklyn could not keep his smile hidden from the others. "Just watch."  
  
****************************************  
  
Elisa pulled her shirt from her well toned body, throwing it to the side, and quickly  
started on her jeans. She tore off the denim material and her socks, leaving only the  
expanse of her copper skin and her red undergarments. Almost completely nude, she  
approached Goliath and sat beside him, allowing his head to fall limply into her lap. She  
curled around him, letting her strength reinforce his wounded being, pressing all the  
glistening bronze upon his violet, trembling skin.  
  
He burrowed deeper against her chest, feeling the soft silken material of her bra, and the  
velvet smoothness of a warm brass covering about the curvature of her breasts.  
  
Though Goliath outweighed her by more than six times, she held him in her arms,  
stroking his neck, and the hair that spilled forth with her supple fingers, catching with  
every soothing caress, the sensitive pressure points just beneath his leathery hide. "Feel  
the warmth of my skin, Goliath. Feel the pulse of life flowing through my veins. You  
know I'm real, and I am not going to leave you. Ever." She continued her efforts to  
calm him, sending hushed tones of serenity and affection into his right ear, her lip barely  
grazing across the skin.  
  
...no...she lies...she is the enemy...destroy her...  
  
"...no...I will not," he whispered back to his invisible adversary, "I can't hurt my Elisa."  
  
...no...you must...... The voices were drowned by Goliath's will, if just now for a few  
minutes.  
  
"Fight them Goliath," she whispered, "we have built too much together to give up now.   
Remember everything we've gone through, everything good we've experienced.   
Trinity's birth, our honeymoon, our wedding, all the dates we've gone on, the movies, the  
arboretum, the park, the dinners with my parents, the mini golf...and that damn robotic  
clown. All the adventures we've lived, the first time we flew together in the sky, the first  
time we kissed on your high tower...the first time we made love."  
  
At this comment, Goliath stirred slightly and Elisa noticed the slight tugging to his lips.  
  
"I remember that night like it was yesterday. It was a Spring evening, with a light rain  
falling, spattering quietly on the roof and windows. We arrived home, totally soaked to  
the bone, and quickly ducked into my apartment to get warm, and so I could change my  
clothes. We lit a fire and I decided to throw on nothing but a robe. We sat in front of the  
fireplace, and I practically melted into your arms. You held me for the longest time...and  
then kissed me like you've never kissed me before, looking down on me with eyes of  
trust and hope...and love. Before that, I was...scared to physically show my love for you,  
but it all disappeared with that one look. I knew you would never hurt me, or ever let me  
feel an ounce of pain. We ended up making love several times that night in front of the  
roaring fire, and I fell asleep in your arms. I awoke to your statue, wings spread, to  
protect me from the evils of the world. For six years, you have done nothing but protect  
me and keep me safe. And now, Big Guy, it's my turn to protect you."  
  
"H-How?" he asked, in a tiny voice.  
  
Elisa glanced to the windows, and found Demona standing there, with what looked to be  
a leather bound book under her arm. The immortal nodded, and Elisa took the cue.   
"Demona has a spell, that will allow us to fight the toxin firsthand. To help you battle  
the demons that have haunted you for so long." She leaned in and pulled his face to meet  
with her own. "But we need you to be strong enough for the spell to be cast."  
  
"I shall do...what I can," he sent forth a rasped whisper, informing Elisa of his withering  
health and fading strength to combat the pathogen, "but I cannot hold out...for long."  
  
"I know." she replied, turning to an opening door and Demona stepping through. "We'll  
be ready very soon."  
  
****************************************  
  
Less than ten minutes had passed and Demona had prepared herself for the spell to be  
cast. A ring of thirteen burning candles had been placed at exact points around Goliath,  
now sitting upright with his legs crossed. Elisa remained wrapped around him,  
continuously rubbing her hands about his chest and shoulders, keeping him anchored in  
reality through her touch. Demona placed herself in front of him, intensely studying the  
open page of her book. The others mulled around the couple and immortal, keeping their  
voices low, an intentional strategy to keep the atmosphere as sedate and tranquil as  
possible.  
  
"I believe I'm ready," Demona announced clearly, "we can begin."  
  
The clan moved around them, those chosen to take up the fight for their leader's very  
sanity.  
  
"I need total silence for this to work. I need to concentrate, if you are going to make it."  
  
"Whoa, wait a minute," Dr. Blackwell cut in suddenly, invoking a low growl from  
Demona, "you're going too, Demona. As are the Xanatoses."  
  
"What?" The immortal locked her gaze with the human. "Why must I go? What  
purpose will I serve there?"  
  
Xanatos and Fox stepped forward, the billionaire arching an eyebrow, looking quite  
confused. "Indeed. Sending three of his former enemies may make things even worse."  
  
"You are all a part of his past, a part of his pain. Goliath needs to come to terms with  
everything he has experienced. That includes you three. And that's precisely why you  
will be going." Dr. Blackwell walked the length of the room, passing by each of the  
three clan associates she just mentioned. "The mutates should stay here," she started,  
looking back to Talon, "in case something goes wrong and Goliath wakes from the spell  
before the rest of you."  
  
"And even our children should be involved as well?" Sata asked worriedly.  
  
"Yes. He considers them a part of his family. I know it could be dangerous, but he will  
need them in the fight."  
  
"And what about you, Anne-Marie-chan? Your experience and knowledge would be of  
great help."  
  
"It's not my place. As I understand this...incantation, as it were, you will bare witness to  
his most personal desires, feelings, hopes and pain in corporeal form, and will delve  
deeper into his buried memories that even I could not bring out. It's a province of  
Goliath saved solely for his family."  
  
Demona suppressed a growing rage at this so called professional's plan, and plunged  
back into the preparement of the spell. "If you would all take your places," she called to  
the clan, "and Elisa...if you would please get dressed."  
  
"What?" Elisa looked down to her body, and suddenly remembered she had nothing to  
cover herself except her bright crimson bra and panties. "Oh, yeah!"  
  
She scrambled to dress herself as the immediate clan perched themselves in a seated  
circle around the Maza couple, including the Xanatoses, placing themselves within the  
domain of the candles. The mutates and doctors moved back to allow Demona to work  
her impressive skills in the arts of black magic.  
  
After reviewing the last of the spell, scrolled upon the browning, tattered pages of the  
book in an ancient hand, her eyes fell closed, and she raised her arms and spread forth  
her cobalt-colored wings. The candles bobbed and weaved in their confinement of  
melting wax, and through Demona's alignment with anything magical, sensed the power  
growing even before the spell had been cast. "One whose mind has become dark, and as  
cold as the dead," she whispered her chanting of the conjuration, growing in volume as  
she progressed, "allow us, his closest friends, to enter and fight in his stead. Through  
pain and torture an evil sickness has supplied, we ask for a portal to open, and grant us  
free access inside!"  
  
With her last words uttered, the candles exploded with a tempest of flame, incensing the  
smoke to billow and collect around the bodies of the clan. A cold wind passed through,  
and spiraled about, creating a vortex contained within the circle of fire. It grew and  
swelled and in it's fury, enveloped all human and gargoyle forms alike.  
  
They all submitted to the spell's intended effects, and deep within their very essence, felt  
their souls being pulled from their physical forms. Faster and faster the wind surged  
around them, until finally it ripped their free floating spirits away and towards Goliath's  
comatose frame. Stretching, distending, straining beyond what their bodies could ever  
achieve, the transference was painful, as each member of the clan found themselves in a  
frightening journey into the darkness. A grinding white noise filled every sense, growing  
in intensity until, just as quickly, a cessation of all sound, and then...oblivion.  
  
****************************************  
  
The first to stir was Shadow, pulling himself from the floor. But his talons grazed upon a  
surface like nothing he had ever felt before. Not steel, not wood, as if the very air had  
solidified enough to walk on. His eyes briskly adjusted to the absence of light, and he  
sensed movement beside. Delilah used his massive arm to drag herself to a sitting  
position, and suddenly Shadow grabbed her and raised her into the air, allowing her feet  
to stand on their own. She flashed a smile to her love and looked around her.  
  
The clan were all aroused from their enforced sleep, mumbling their discomfort as  
inaudible complaints. Brooklyn and Sata were checking on their children, Demona on  
her daughter, the Xanatoses used each other as a brace to get themselves off the ground.   
Suddenly, as if a collective thought streaked through them, they all looked to where their  
leader had last been, but found only Elisa looking frantically around her.  
  
"Where is he?!" she screamed. "Where's he gone?!"  
  
"It's all right, Elisa," Demona swiftly came to her side, "he's here. He's all around us."   
She raised her hands to direct the clan's assembled gaze to their surroundings. They had  
been dumped within a massive hall, a void of absolute nothingness beyond the walls.   
  
Elisa pressed her hand upon the barrier, and through her skin flowed a bitter cold, and the  
slight sensation of a pulsing beat. An odd triple cadence, that she knew so well.   
Goliath's heartbeat, heard so many times as she rested against his mighty chest. "It is  
him. We made it," she looked back to the wide-eyed glares of the clan, "we're inside  
Goliath's mind."  
  
"This...is his mind?" Todd replied, clicking his eyes back to a barren universe just  
beyond his reach, almost seeing a swirling of mist flowing past. "Uhm...kinda...empty,  
isn't it? I thought we would be seeing a little more than this."  
  
"Perhaps an effect of the toxin." Shadow muttered.  
  
"Look!" Angela cried, pointing down to expanse of the hallway. "A light..."  
  
Elisa walked up, straining her eyes to make out a faint glow down the far end of the hall.   
"Let's go." She quickly took off, a fast stride that even the gargoyles had trouble keeping  
up with. As they traversed the entire length of the tunnel, the light grew brighter, and  
larger, and they soon found themselves at an archway, leading into an even bigger room.  
  
Circular and the size of the Eyrie's gym, holding upon the curved walls what looked to be  
picture frames, stretching up almost fifty feet to the ceiling, barely outlined against the  
darkness. The clan moved slowly forwards, finding themselves in the center of the  
magnificent room, where a shaft of pure light erupted from the floor, and rose to the  
ceiling, barely helping to illuminate the desolate environment.  
  
"What do you suppose these are for?" Desdemona whispered, eyeing the giant  
rectangular frames, towering over her.  
  
(((those are portals...into his soul))) A voice called out, answering the gargess' question.  
  
"Who are you?" Elisa asked hesitantly, searching the entire room for the source of the  
voice.  
  
(((a friend...who has been fighting...for your husband from the very beginning)))  
  
"You're the one Goliath mentioned."  
  
(((yes...though...I cannot hold out...for much longer...this poison is eating at Goliath's  
very soul...it must be stopped before...it is too late))) The voice was fading, losing her  
battle with what ravaged upon Goliath's body and mind.  
  
"What can we do?"  
  
(((you must...find what causes...his pain...you must grapple...with the shadows...who hold  
his pure essence in their grasp)))  
  
"How?" Elisa asked desperately. "How do find anything in this...empty room? How can  
we help him?"  
  
(((a guide...shall appear)))  
  
"A guide?"  
  
(((the parts...of his psyche...still untouched by the poison...will aid in...your...quest))) The  
voice finally gave out, her tortured rasp shattering among the walls and leaving nothing  
but an eerie silence.  
  
"The parts of his psyche?" Elisa wistfully repeated her words, growing despondent with  
every passing second. "Where the hell do we start?"  
  
"Uh, Elisa?" Annika's soft tone called from behind her, causing the slender woman to  
whirl around and stare past the she-goyle's shoulder. "I think we have visitors..."  
  
She was right. From beneath each one of the frames, doorways had opened, and stepping  
through came shadowed figures. They surrounded the clan, who all timidly moved in  
closer to the center of the room. Each figure was of a different size and shape, yet still  
remained concealed from their sight.  
  
"Who are you?!" Shadow snarled, grasping his arms and wings about his blossom,  
darting his distrustful gaze to the spread of figures creeping steadily closer.  
  
"Do not be alarmed," the figures spoke as one, "we are of Goliath."  
  
Elisa had begun to understand, to finally deduce their true intent, and as her eyes picked  
out the distinct forms, who bared striking similarities to her gargoyle friends, she knew  
they had commenced their journey to save her husband.  
  
A figure near her stepped into the light. It was Hudson, gracing her eyes with the  
embracing grin forged through a thousand years. His garments were of a perfect ivory, a  
bright white seeming to glow with a heavenly radiance. "Dinna worry lass, we be of yer  
mate's very self." he spoke to her in the same gruff accent the real Hudson possessed, yet   
an otherworldly resonance flowed through.  
  
"You're all part of Goliath's mind." Elisa guessed correctly.  
  
"Aye. I be Goliath's experience, his leadership ability."  
  
Brooklyn appeared from the shadows. "I am Goliath's strategy, his cunning."  
  
And then beside him Broadway. "I am his forgiveness, his mercy for the weak."  
  
Lexington emerged next. "I am his intelligence, his wisdom."  
  
And Angela. "I am his friendship, his kindness, his compassion."  
  
Then Othello. "I am his sense of justice, his ability to tell right from wrong."  
  
Desdemona stepped forward from the nothingness. "I am his memories, his most  
cherished moments of the past and present."  
  
Sata appeared. "I am his sense of honor, his integrity."  
  
And on either side of her, the spirits of her children. "We are his sense of family," they  
chorused together, slightly unnerving the real twins, "his love for his wife, children,  
friends and clan."  
  
Next, came Shadow. "I am his fighting skill, his battle prowess."  
  
And then Annika. "I am his protective nature, his desire to keep those he loves and the  
innocent safe from harm."  
  
And Todd alongside. "I am his sense of humor, or lack there of." The real Todd nodded  
his consent to his counterpart's role in Goliath's mind.  
  
Delilah emerged, with baby Trinity in her arms. "We are his innocence, his wonder at  
this new world around him and the embracing of new customs, his acceptance."  
  
The clan had been surrounded by the many parts of Goliath, all dressed in their usual  
garments, yet completely bleached of all color. Elisa stepped forward, examining those  
near her, until they all suddenly drifted their gaze as one to another opening portal. A  
slender figure glided serenely towards the group, and when appearing into the light, Elisa  
gasped.  
  
It was her, clad in a lengthy dress with long tight sleeves. It was white as the snow and  
possessed a trail of satiny lace dragging behind her, with wisps of transparent silk near  
the shoulder blades, forming what almost looked like an angel's wings. "I am Goliath's  
love, his heart, his soul."  
  
"How appropriate." Fox teased quietly.  
  
"Oh wow," Elisa looked her counterpart over from the length of her dress to her  
sparkling chocolate eyes, "you're me..."  
  
"Surprised?" the counterpart answered, a melodious tone that seemed to sing forth with  
every word.  
  
"I-I guess not."  
  
The other Elisa smiled, and slowly drifted through the crowd of gargoyles and humans,  
eyeing each one, finding a strength all their own beneath each divergent covering. "You  
are all brave to come here. This world has become a battlefield, with one casualty, who  
is at this moment being bombarded with an agony that no one could ever perceive, that  
none one could ever endure or even survive."  
  
Elisa rushed forward to her counterpart. "Goliath? Is he all right? Where is he?!"  
  
"Your devotion is truly remarkable for your mate." She moved off to the side, heading  
away from the group, and approaching the edge of the light beam, steadily reaching into  
the blinding center. A form loomed within the light, coming into sharp focus with a  
wave of her hands.  
  
Goliath, huddled on his knees and completely bent over, covered partially by his wings.   
His entire body had been wracked an unrelenting pain, piercing through every part of his  
trembling form. What pain had existed in the reality outside, had no equal to what he felt  
now. His very blood boiled, burning through his system, and annihilating what will and  
strength that had ever dared to reside within.  
  
Elisa rushed forward, only to be restrained by her counterpart. No matter how hard she  
struggled, she could not release herself from a grasp as powerful as Goliath's. "This is  
not your husband," the counterpart bellowed, "it is merely a manifestation of his physical  
form. A display of his external torture. Your husband," she pointed to the walls behind,  
"is here."  
  
"All this isn't Goliath! It's dark, cold...lifeless!!"  
  
"Yes...your husband is dying. As is his mind."  
  
"No..." she wailed in a heartbreaking cry, "he can't..."  
  
"Yes, he will. If appropriate measures are not taken," Desdemona's counterpart spoke  
up, her husky voice catching Elisa's frazzled focus, "all this will be lost."  
  
"What can we...can I do?"  
  
"Battle what forces vie for control. The poison that gains strength with every second."  
  
"How?"  
  
"Force your husband to relive his most cherished memories. Force him to fight, to win,  
to keep what he has gained. Only he will decide the final victor for his psyche."   
Desdemona stood near Goliath, still writhing in utter torture upon the floor. "You can  
use this form to reach your husband. Talk to him, bring his soul back."  
  
Elisa immediately dropped to her knees, as the fragments of Goliath's mind allowed her  
access to her husband's form. She grabbed him, and held upon his neck with all her  
might, feeling his agonized spasms flow through her. "Goliath! Please, fight. Come  
back. Remember everything that you have. Things, people, places, you hold most dear!   
Your family, your clan, your children...me..."  
  
As Elisa implored to her mate, the counterpart Desdemona closed her eyes and  
empowered her region of his mind. The frames flickered with a mass of color and light,  
swirling to form pictures of his past. Like movie screens, they presented over a thousand  
years worth of history, experienced by a single being. The clan all watched with awe and  
wonder at their very lives on display.  
  
Visions of castle Wyvern from the days of Scotland, a clan once shattered brought back  
to relive their precious instants of existence erased by betrayal and mistrust. Goliath  
appeared as a young gargoyle with his brothers and sisters, hunting, joking, learning,  
discovering, with all those he was hatched with. And after they awakened from their  
cursed sleep a millennia later, the meeting of new friends, and intimate moments with  
each of his treasured family members. Avalon, the unearthing of his children thought  
dead, and a journey around the globe, finding that their race had lived on in different  
countries. A retaking of their ancient home, a gift from a former enemy for saving his  
firstborn son. The victory against perhaps the most dangerous foe of all and his war upon  
the world and the redemption of an immortal driven to hatred and death. They all came  
forth with a well-being and happiness, that now had been threatened by a simple toxin to  
be destroyed for all eternity.  
  
"Wait a minute," Brooklyn had noticed a noticeably vacant area that had filled his  
leader's recent years, "something seems to be missing."  
  
"Merely saving the best for last." the counterpart Desdemona explained.  
  
The screens all went blank, save for one, growing in size. A scream erupted, and a  
slender form fell past the window of view, a blur of blue and red. It was Elisa, as she  
plummeted towards the ground, having fallen from the edge of the castle's towering  
cornices. And then, a lavender shape dove from the night sky to save her, to pluck her  
from the claws of death. It was the first time Goliath and Elisa, had ever met.  
  
Elisa, still holding Goliath, forcefully raised his eyes to the images looming over them.   
"Look, Goliath, our life as it first began. When I truly started to live."  
  
The memories continued, with Goliath having awakened in Central Park and discovering  
this beautiful human detective had stayed with him all day and protected him from  
Xanatos' hired guns. When Elisa flew on her own wings for the first time, and he saw  
her not as a friend, but now as a romantic interest. When they first danced on Halloween,  
and Elisa discovered this giant had the grace of a swan. The journey to Avalon and  
finally finding their way home together. The night of the Hunter's moon and their first  
kiss. That rainy night when they first made love. The Unseelie war and having been  
witness to his human love being struck down and almost brought to the edge of death, but  
saved by a former enemy. Their decision to be mated. Their wedding night and the  
reception, having danced to the dawn's light. The honeymoon, and the night on the  
beach. Seeing his daughter born from the woman he loves, and first holding her tiny  
form in his arms. His most wondrous moments in life.  
  
"Please, Goliath, don't let all this die! Come back to your family! Your baby daughter,  
who needs the guidance of a father!" Elisa almost screamed into his ear, forcing him,  
commanding him to listen to her. His pain she could feel, through their bond, forged of  
love and dedication to each other. She let loose her tears, trailing from the ends of her  
eyes and dropping onto Goliath's face. "Please...fight it."  
  
"I...I..." The form of Goliath attempted to speak, battling through the grasp of the poison  
upon his vocal cords. "I...cannot..."  
  
"Yes, you can. You ca..."  
  
Elisa's most heartfelt appeal was forcefully interrupted by a sickening shattering sound.   
The windows lining the walls simultaneously erupted with powerful explosions, sending  
a blast of fire and debris into the room from each frame. All gathered there covered  
themselves from the onslaught of jagged shrapnel.  
  
"Well, isn't this sweet." A grating jeer echoed around them, filled with malice and  
hatred so, that a shiver flowed through Elisa, as she recognized this new sound. "She's  
trying to save her one true love." From the opposite side of where they had first entered,  
the reality they now dwelt within was ferociously torn away by sharpened claws, creating  
a hole which bled a chorus of agonized screams. Gargoyle screams of death. Through  
the ripped piece came a shadowed figure, blacker than even the walls. He stood before  
them, with eyes of a pallid luster.  
  
Elisa knew this shape, for she had almost met her bloody end when having been attacked  
in her very home. "Sobek..."  
  
"No," it answered back, "not quite." The shadow stretched and distorted it's form,  
growing a pair of twisted wings from it's back. "I am what is eating away at your  
husband's body, a virus made even stronger by powerful magic. This form is perhaps  
what you perceive while in your little spell's entrapment."  
  
"YOU FUCKING BASTARD!!!" Elisa screeched, an octave high enough and containing  
such power to fracture glass. "You won't win!! You won't take him from me!!"  
  
"Oh, but I already have. You see, I am in possession of what that shrink bitch would  
most likely call...his negative feelings, and soon," he glared upon those representing  
Goliath's psyche, still untouched by the toxin, "I will have it all." He turned his  
frightening gaze to the gaping wound in the wall. "Come, my army. Show yourselves."  
  
More forms appeared through the portal. Six separate figures, each lining up on either  
side of the poison taken Sobek's appearance. "I am his guilt," it was David Xanatos, clad  
in black suit and tie, and the malicious grin he had once sported, "his feelings of failure  
at the loss of his clan."  
  
And beside him, wrapped around Xanatos' arm, was Fox, in a slinky black velvet dress.   
"I am his pain, his torment in losing so many he cared about."  
  
And further along, appeared Jon Castaway, in full body armor of a frosted ebon gleam.   
"I am his greatest fears, his sense of hopelessness."  
  
On the other side, came Jason Canmore. "I am his jealousy, his possessiveness, his  
proverbial green eyed monster."  
  
Then a hulking form, dwarfing the human counterpart alongside. Back from his  
gruesome death at Goliath's hands, was Thailog. "I am his hatred, his loathing and  
animosity."  
  
And last, in a solid black tunic and loincloth, was Demona, eyes bursting forth with a  
blazing blood glow. "And I am his anger, his absolute rage."  
  
Each side had arranged their pieces into place, as if forming a massive chess board and  
the winner to be awarded with Goliath's very life. White versus black, good versus evil.   
Each of Goliath's personality traits had lined up on either side of the room, facing one  
another in a showdown of momentous proportion, and the clan had been caught in the  
middle.  
  
"You cannot fight us," whispered Goliath's soul Elisa, "we cannot fight against those we  
are a part of."  
  
"Too true." agreed the Sobek shadow.  
  
"Goliath's clan is here to fight you in our stead."  
  
"Which is why I plan on evening out the odds." Sobek drew in a deep breath and howled  
his depravity, a deafening shockwave causing the clan to bow over and cover their ears in  
pain. "I am in control of this mind!! I am a poison without any possibility for a cure!! I  
have this gargoyle's very soul at my command, with my hordes ready to serve only their  
master and king. COME TO ME!!! COOOOOME!!!"  
  
The walls of the room distended and swelled, with the imprints of taloned hands  
attempting to break through. The once solid barriers became pliable and molded to the  
demons beyond. The entire clan watched in horror as the walls became as living entities,  
releasing into the room, misshapen monsters of the purest raven hue. Resembling what a  
child would dream about in a fear induced catalepsy, what the clan would wholly dread  
most, and what evils could be formed from Goliath's deepest subconscious. They ripped  
through, and stepped onto the ground, a battalion of nightmares created from the sickness  
coursing wildly through Elisa's beloved.  
  
She maintained her grip around Goliath, and carefully eyed the surrounding masses of  
horrid deformed creatures. Most of them possessed barely a humanoid appearance, some  
had wings, others covered in razor sharp spikes, and some even resembled wild animals.   
And as a final, sick joke, a few even went as far as to take on the appearance of his dead  
clan from a thousand years ago. With fangs, claws and talons, they appeared as  
instruments of destruction and doom.  
  
The clan staggered in a circle, back to back, and prepared for the impending war. A war  
for the life and soul of their closest friend. Elisa closed her eyes, and pressed her head to  
Goliath's lush mane, delving into the faint scent of his being that remained on this  
physical representation of her husband.  
  
"It begins," said the shadow Sobek, almost laughingly, "the battle shall commence and to  
the victor, goes Goliath's life." He surveyed his army, salivating at the chance to rend  
flesh from bone, and anticipating for the charge. With one biting command, he would let  
loose the hordes. "Attack..."  
  
  
To be concluded... 


	5. Breakdown Part 5: The Light At The End

  
  
36 - "Breakdown Part 5: The Light At The End"  
Originally Written: January 12th, 2001  
  
With a single utterance, the war had commenced. The field of black, pulsating with an  
inhuman hatred and a multitude of organic weaponry, surged forth, surrounding the  
gargoyles. Each of Wyvern's warriors prepared themselves for the battle, as they formed  
a protective circle around their leader, still forced to his knees by the toxin. Shadow  
pulled his nunchuku, Sata and Hudson their blades, and the rest, with their only weapons  
consisting of clenched fists.  
  
The shadow Sobek stood far to the side, watching intently his army of darkness  
encroaching upon the clan. His taken fragments, seized by the poison, and made ever  
stronger by his power, stood faithfully by his side, their gaze of malice connecting with  
Goliath's virtuous components, who themselves pulled as far away as they could.  
  
The soul-Elisa remained in the middle of the line-up, and as she bore witness to the  
darkness closing in on her clan, she looked to her own hand. It was fading, the light of  
her soul, that of Goliath, was dwindling. She now thought perhaps, the battle had been  
lost before it even began.  
  
The real Elisa had been purposely buried in the clan's circular formation, for their hope  
that she would continue her efforts to break through to her mate. She clung to Goliath's  
frame, her hands grasped to lavender skin and a thick tress of sable hair. Her contact to  
him, though this was but a phantom of the real Goliath, still remained warm and she  
could feel the weak, yet steady rhythm of life. She knew, no matter how enfeebled, how  
sickly he had become, she would never give up her fight.  
  
The shadow Sobek, destroyer of faith and the bringer of darkness, was as impatient and  
egotistical as his real counterpart, and his army's advancement was too laggard for his  
enjoyment. "Oh come now," he beckoned to them, "enough of this dramatic, fear  
inducing crawl to the enemy...destroy them now!!"  
  
His words were law to the creatures of a poisoned subconscious, and they obeyed without  
question, immediately washing over the clan, and tearing into their ranks with lightning  
quick ferocity.  
  
Shadow was the first to land a blow, taking out two with a single strike, and swerving  
around to knock a third with the steel capped end of his nunchuku, watching with animal  
satisfaction of the monster's instantaneous implosion into nothingness. The clan,  
warriors, pacifists, artists, writers, inventors, chefs, young men and women alike, were  
now forced to fight for their own lives, as the horde increased their attack.  
  
Brooklyn and Sata remained close to their children, fending off beast after beast, yet still  
they came. Where one would fall, two more would take their place. The young  
hatchlings clawed away at their enemy, ganging up, increasing their strength with each  
sibling's own battle skills.  
  
Annika slashed through demon after demon, and Todd pressed his back against hers,  
landing hard punches and quick jabs against his foes, learned from many a bar fight,  
orphanage tussle and school scrap in his semi-violent past. Always the one to start the  
fight, and always the one to make sure it would be finished as well. He and his love, like  
the rest, fought silently, for they knew the stakes were of a high gain, the life of their  
friend.  
  
Delilah did her best, as one who wanted peace in her life so badly, and always shied away  
from battle. She kept her proximity to Shadow, who would sometimes, between his own  
blurred martial arts moves, lend her a helping hand. He twisted around her slender  
frame, defending his blossom to the bitter end.  
  
Hudson, Demona, Angela, Broadway, lashed out in all directions. Hudson's tempered  
mettle and Demona's animal rage worked as a perfect paradox to the other, and the  
young mated couple beside them were careful to watch the other's back. Broadway's  
massive fists were nothing short of battering rams, doing even Goliath proud with the  
power he commanded. Demona's howling barely portrayed what anger was being  
released with every blow, as she reveled in the bloodlust unleashed in the heat of battle.  
  
Lexington bounced from creature to creature, his awesome speed and incredible agility,  
enhanced even further by cybernetic implants, creating a warrior more than capable of  
holding his own. He attacked where his data processors embedded in his brain, doing  
their best to ascertain the enemies before him, had identified weak points. His talons  
slashed through the arm and leg joints and what manifested as eyes in the horrid, ever  
changing mass of blackened ooze. He fought on, his blanched olive-colored skin darting  
this way and that through the consuming shadows and their razor sharp weapons, doing  
his best to kept his skin still attached to his frame.  
  
The Xanatoses weaved around each other as a ballet of skilled martial arts ensued,  
playing their waltz upon the darkened dancefloor. Fox's wicked kicks and David's quick  
thrusts slicing through, a learned expertise, now used instead for mere enjoyment of  
physical prowess, but to endeavor for a man who helped rebuild their shattered spirits.   
Man and wife, knowing their betrothed and their best moves so well, would thrust once,  
and whirl around to finish the other's prey. Their designer clothing was becoming torn  
and the skin beneath, bruised and bleeding at the savage attacks of an adversary  
possessed of claws and talons, sharpened than that of any form of steel.  
  
Desdemona and Othello, warriors of ancient Scotland, called upon again for their duty to  
protect, stayed the closest to Goliath and Elisa. They were the last line of defense before  
the ultimate quarry. They kept the shifting shadows at bay, allowing Elisa her chance to  
reach through the void, to grasp upon the soul of her husband.  
  
"Goliath!" she yelled to him, her anger and utter desperation apparent on a frayed tone.   
"You have to fight! You have to come back! We need you now!! We can't hold out for  
long!!" She continued time after time, try after try, but Goliath still remained  
unresponsive, a weakened frame of seizures and convulsions, and his mind scattered to  
the winds.  
  
The walls of this room turned battlefield, streaked with lightning, and a furious storm  
vented it's rage just beyond the barriers. This world was dying. Goliath was dying. His  
psyche, those apparitions who waited upon the sidelines for the eventual champion, were  
weakening as well. Half of them had fallen to their knees and helplessly watched as their  
corporeal forms waned and grew transparent, and soon, only his soul, the form of Elisa  
was standing. The last vessel to be taken by the toxin. The angel of ivory silk stood  
alone at the forefront, forever gazing upon her own self, and his mate.  
  
"Come on, Goliath," Elisa screamed, having noticed the fall of almost all of Goliath's  
greatest parts, "you have to fight!!"  
  
From beyond the ensuing chaos of gargoyle and human versus nightmare and demon,  
stood the toxin's very essence. Sobek eyed his handiwork, and smiled, an exact replica  
of his counterpart's sneer. "That's it, fight and fight and fight some more, but in the end  
I will surely stand triumphant." he jested to himself. "I must give them their kudos  
though, they fight bravely, but against so overwhelming odds, how can they possibly  
prevail?" His voice was glacial ice, a bitter facetiousness plainly evident as he continued  
to berate the force still fighting on.  
  
"We must push them back!!" cried Shadow, he being perhaps the best chance of the  
clan's survival, his unmatched fighting skills a beacon of hope in the absolute shroud of  
enemy forces. "We must prevail!!" His nunchuku had been long ago torn from his  
hands, and now his claws, wings and tail were the only weapons available. He thrust  
with semi open palms, and incredible power flowing through, obliterating each attacker  
with savage force. Low sweep kicks and high head shots, some blows even resulting in a  
separation of head from body.  
  
Yet through it all, the forces were too large in number and too great in their desire for  
blood. They were releasing from the walls in ever increasing abundance, and a subtle  
plan to split up the clan, to drag them apart from each other was working almost too  
perfectly. The barrier around Goliath and Elisa was breaking down, and soon would  
disappear altogether, allowing the horde to tear into the human detective.  
  
Suddenly, a shrill voice rang out. "Todd!!" Annika had been snared by a tendril of  
demonic ooze, and dragged away from the group, left to the mercies of the attackers  
beyond.  
  
"Annika!!" he screamed her name in the confusion, and desperately fought his way  
through. Gashes were ferociously swiped upon his skin, and the blood flowed freely, but  
his eyes were set on Annika and nothing else. "Get the fuck off me!!" His rage was  
unequaled as his gargoyle lover was pulled ever farther away towards the wall, from  
where the tendril had emanated forth.  
  
"No..." she yelled to her captor, as her arms and legs were caught as well. With a vice of  
steel, did they grab her and hold her. She felt the ooze creep up her skin, swallowing her  
to the waist. She struggled furiously, her eyes screaming forth with the crimson gargoyle  
manifestation of intense anger. "No!! NOOOO!!!"  
  
"ANNIKAAAA!!!" Todd lunged to her, even still captured by the enemy mass, and  
caught her last free appendage. Hand of human grasped hand of gargoyle, and they both  
struggled to maintain this last connection of their bodies and souls. Yet he could not pull  
her free, and pleaded for any assistance, "HEEEEELP!!! Somebody help me!!"  
  
His cry echoed through the room, and caught every ear of his friends. Yet they were too  
involved in their own battle to even try to come to his aid. The gargoyles were being  
pulled even further apart, and were left to fend for themselves against the vicious swarm  
of evil incarnate, given form and solidity to carry out the wishes of it's master.  
  
"Don't let go, Annika!!" he cried to her, and seeing a flash of ocean blue, and the fear  
contained within. The same fear he had beheld the night they first met, and in truth, it  
scared him now as well. She had become a part of him, his proverbial better self, and  
now felt what dread flowed through her veins, and tainted her heart. "Come on...come  
on..." He was losing his grip, he was losing her. "Please..."  
  
A indistinct shape landed beside him and an azure skinned hand grabbed Annika's arm,  
holding her at bay. It was Demona, heaving heard the desperate cry, and fought her way  
to the young couple. "I have you, Annika!!" she assured her friend.  
  
"Don't let go!! Please!!" the rose-colored gargess begged, drowning in her own  
uncertainties of their survival.  
  
"I won't!!"  
  
"None of us will!" cried Todd, as he and the immortal held her form steady. But even  
their combined strength could barely pull her from the gnarled disorder of raven tendrils,  
and instead, they found themselves becoming the next targets, as the walls erupted with  
more hands and clawed about their forms, snatching arm and leg, and ensnaring them as  
well. Now, the entire trio had fallen prey to Sobek's putrid army.  
  
The clan was losing ground quickly, each member being pulled closer and closer towards  
the walls, and severed from their loved ones. Delilah was caught and seized from  
Shadow, the twins taken from their parents, Angela from Broadway. Frightening pleas  
for help were cast around the room, yet no one could aid them.  
  
****************************************  
  
"What happening to them?!" Maggie called out, seeing the limp forms of her friends  
losing their fight for life. Their minds were under siege, and thus, their bodies as well.   
The lioness found herself at her Delilah's side, feeling for a pulse. The clone's heart rate  
was decreasing, she was dying. "What's wrong?!"  
  
"They are losing." an emotionless Owen Burnett replied, standing at the far side of the  
cell, holding a sleeping Trinity to his left shoulder, and rubbing Alexander's hair, as the  
toddler clasped to his right leg. "They are losing the battle, and so their bodies are  
weakening as a result."  
  
"What can we do?!"  
  
"Nothing, Maggie." replied her husband, as Talon knelt beside her. "If they lose the fight  
inside his mind, they'll die. The body can't live without the mind." He wrapped his  
arms around her trembling frame, and whispered to her gently, as her face had found the  
breadth of his chest. "We can't help, we can only pray that they will find a way. That  
Elisa will bring him back."  
  
****************************************  
  
"Goliath, please!!" Elisa hollered with every fiber of her being, barely receiving a stirring  
of lavender skin in reply.  
  
Othello and Desdemona were still around the mismatched couple, fighting a futile battle,  
as they had been left to the utter severity of the forces of the poison. Streaks of scarlet  
and dark maroon marred their once beautiful skin. They were being literally torn apart.   
Chunks of skin ripped from their arms, legs, torso, face, they were covered in their own  
blood and entrails. Yet they fought on, true valor within each of their hearts.  
  
Suddenly, a few encroaching forms melded into each other, a fusion of raw power,  
increasing their size and mass, and creating from many, a massive hulking creature. It  
grabbed each gargoyle with a claw, and dragged them away.  
  
"NOOOO!!!" Desdemona screamed with dread. "My sister!!" She shot a last look to  
Elisa just before being swallowed completely in the void. "Othel..."  
  
"My love!!" Othello howled, baring his teeth in a feral rage as his chosen mate  
disappeared beneath layers upon layers of filth, engorged with evil. "I will not allow you  
to take us...I will not allow..." A hollow threat, as he too was devoured, and his growls  
were abruptly silenced.  
  
Elisa and her mate were now completely exposed, and the army closed in.  
  
"This should be interesting." said Sobek beneath his breath. "I have seen the inside of  
Goliath, and now I shall see the insides of his beloved as well. Bring me her heart, I wish  
to see her own organ of life cease it's beating before her eyes!!"  
  
They obeyed without question, and in one split second, a smaller shape threw itself  
towards the couple, heading directly for Elisa's throat. But, as if a force of energy had  
been erected, it was thrown back into the mob.  
  
"What?" Sobek watched with dismay as his warrior was repelled. "What happened?"  
  
The forces continued to throw themselves towards the Mazas. Yet they were unable to  
reach them. They barraged upon the shaft of light, yet could not break through.  
  
"DAAAAMN!!!" The Sobek shadow roared, turning to face the last standing member of  
Goliath's psyche. "You did this, you little whore!! You are still protecting them!!"  
  
The soul-Elisa managed a smile before falling to her knees. "That light is the last  
untouched domain of Goliath's mind. You cannot...penetrate through. You will not have  
her, demon. You will...not win..." Her words gave out, as her fading strength had sapped  
the ability to speak.  
  
Sobek was seething now. Like his counterpart, he hated to lose. Yet he quickly calmed  
himself and turned to see his army still dogpiling upon the light, and still being repelled.   
"Brute strength will not prevail now. This will require a delicate touch." The battalion  
was an extension of his own self, and thus he was in control of them. He could see  
through their eyes and feel every drop of blood spilled from the clan. He took control of  
a smaller form, who ducked through to where Elisa's foot had been left unintentionally  
on the very edge of the barrier. With a quick snap, a small creeper slithered in and  
briskly caught her foot, pulling Elisa away from Goliath.  
  
"No!! Goliath, help me!!" she cried, watching the distance between her and her husband  
grow increasingly farther apart. "Goliath!!"  
  
The lavender giant felt the release of those warm hands from his body, and looked up to  
see Elisa being hauled away from him, towards the wall. His vision was clouded and  
blurred, yet he still saw with perfect clarity, the absolute terror streaked across her face.   
"E...Elisa?..." His speech was slurred and sluggish, and he raised an arm to her, an open  
hand to beckon her own embrace to him. Yet nothing came. She was gone.  
  
"Get off me, you fuckers!!" Elisa screamed with savage fury as she was pulled towards  
the wall, where her essence would be absorbed by the toxin, and Goliath's light would  
dim, and be extinguished forever. They reached the wall, and threw Elisa into the pit of  
blackness, immediately being consumed up to her thighs. "Shit!!"  
  
"They have Elisa!" called Shadow, who himself had been partially assimilated. "Some  
one. Anyone. Help her! They can't take her, or all is lost!!"  
  
"We got problems over here too, pal!!" Todd yelled back, as he and Annika held to  
Demona, all three of them almost covered completely by the ooze.  
  
The entire clan had been taken to the very boundaries of the room, and were now  
entrapped within. All of them were fighting, struggling, to release themselves. Sata and  
Brooklyn were helpless, watching as their twins were absorbed first.  
  
"MOOOOOOOOMMM!!!" Arianna screeched, before she was lost along with her  
brother.  
  
"No!! My daughter...my son...NOOOOOO!!!" Sata's eyes welled with tears of pain, as  
her last sight of her children were of their gruesome demise.  
  
"DAMMIT!!!" Brooklyn reached for his mate, and a grasp of crimson connected with an  
emerald grace. "I love you..." he beseeched to her.  
  
"I know..." she replied, before the timedancers were swallowed, and their resistance  
quelled.  
  
"Angela," cried Broadway, "take my hand!!"  
  
"I can't...I can't reach..." the lavender female tried with all her might to extend her hand  
to his, but it proved fruitless, as they too were taken by the ooze.  
  
The entire clan had now been silenced, Demona, Hudson, the Xanatoses, Lexington, all  
taken to where only nightmares exist. Only one remained, Elisa. She fought on, as the  
poison crept along her frame, now reaching upon her abdomen. "Goliath!!   
GOLIATH!!!"  
  
Sobek heard her cries, and knowing she was the only one who could ruin all his master's  
carefully laid out plans, focused his attention on her mate. His eyes thinned and with a  
wave of his hand, brought forth more hallucinations upon Goliath.  
  
"How could I ever love a weakling," called an apparition of Demona, "who cared more  
for the humans than his own race?"  
  
"I though ye would be th' best one to lead us," Hudson appeared before Goliath's eyes  
next, "instead ye let our entire clan be destroyed."  
  
"No..." Goliath huddled to the ground, the phantoms of his past and present whirling  
around in a faded slideshow.  
  
"I always hoped I would meet my father," it was Angela who taunted him now, "and then  
after forty years, I find a sniveling coward who cannot even fight his own battles."  
  
"We all believed in you," the trio appeared next, scorning with a rasped voice, "you let us  
down."  
  
"Please...leave me..."  
  
And next, would be the killing blow, as Elisa stood in front of him, and Goliath's eyes  
fixated on her own dark stare. "How could I ever love a monster like you? How could I  
share my life with a genetic aberration? An accident of nature. A race that should have  
been destroyed long ago!!" She kneeled to his face, sneering and cursing into his ears,  
continuing her master's wishes of the total annihilation of his soul. "I could never, ever  
love you! You are a coward, a monster, you are not even worth the spit it takes to say  
your name. I should have hooked up with Jason, he at least could give me a real life,  
instead of letting me be attacked, and raped, and almost killed, time after time after  
fricking time. You can't even protect your own goddamn family, let alone your clan or  
your race!"  
  
"...no...please...I love you..."  
  
She stuck in her face right into his, and snarled what Goliath had always feared hearing,  
"I'm almost sick to my stomach that I even allowed you to touch me, allowed you to  
impregnate me, to have a bastard monster of a girl. Wings, claws, spikes, even a tail,  
she's a demon, and should be killed!"  
  
"...no..." This time, it was Elisa's plea. The real Elisa, still fighting for her life, and  
Goliath's soul. She had been enveloped up to her chest, and with only one arm free,  
grasping vainly for him to help her. "...don't listen..."  
  
"You are a freak, a monster. I regret ever having said I loved you, and hope  
you...will...die..." She stood up, the twisted replication of Elisa, and watched as he raised  
tormented eyes to her. "You might as well give up this fight, bastard, you have no soul  
worthy enough to fight for."  
  
Goliath reached up, and upon touching the apparition, she cracked and shattered, and  
crumbled to a pile with the sickening sound of death. All the spirits around him fell as  
well, sending the shards of themselves to the ground, and being carried off in a spiteful  
wind.  
  
"NOOOOOOO!!!!!" Goliath bellowed, tears now streaming down his face.  
  
"You killed them, Goliath," said the shadow Sobek in a hateful voice, "you failed them,  
and now they are all dead. Give up, give up this futile battle, and allow me to take  
control."  
  
"...no...don't...please..." Elisa still did her best to send forth her assurances, but as the  
ooze prowled up the extent of her neck and her arm, her strength was slipping away.   
"...help me..."  
  
Goliath closed in around himself, crouching to the cold ground, leaving two pools of  
salty warmth that was his relentless tears. "I failed them all..."  
  
"...no, Goliath...you didn't...you gave us all life...gave me your love...gave me a beautiful  
daughter..."  
  
"Die, gargoyle, relinquish your life, and the pain will disappear. Give to me your soul,  
and it will all end." Sobek raised his voice over Elisa's. "The endless pain, the guilt, the  
hatred, the remorse, all of it will cease upon your conceding to me."  
  
"...no...we all need our pain...it helps to guide our decisions and actions...so the past  
won't be repeated...we need that pain...please...hold on, Goliath..."  
  
(((Goliath))) It was the soothing voice, having fought it's way back from oblivion's  
clutch. (((they...all need you...especially Elisa...look at her)))  
  
Goliath heeded her wish and looked to his Elisa, almost taken by the blackness, fed from  
the walls that was his psyche. The darkness had numbed her body and senses, and she  
lost all feeling in her legs. Her eyes were penetrating into his, a chocolate grace he had  
cherished so dearly.  
  
(((she loves you with all her heart...she is real...she is your love...your mate...the  
mother...of your children...will you allow this simple toxin...to take away a life that has  
meant so much to others?)))  
  
"...no." he answered.  
  
(((fight for her...fight for them all...and fight for yourself)))  
  
Goliath clenched his fists in anger, forcing the pain wracking his body to relent it's  
vicious attack.  
  
(((they all believe in you...Elisa believes in you...I believe in you...my son)))  
  
Goliath clicked once more to Elisa, the darkness having slithered about her face, and  
leaving terror filled eyes to peer into Goliath's very being. His teeth clenched, his  
muscles brimmed over with his power, and he rose to one knee.  
  
"...help me..." she cried once more.  
  
"No!!" Sobek blared, his smile swiftly falling from his lips. "You can't...I won't allow  
you to win!!"  
  
The soul-Elisa, visibly transparent, and fading from view, felt a surge of welcome  
strength flow through her essence, and quickly stood to her full height. The last  
untouched part, where all of this gargoyle's very hopes and dreams and purity of spirit  
was held, grew with him, a tide of blessedness and tranquillity from where he drew his  
greatest power.  
  
"...Goliath, please help m..." Elisa's pleas were quieted as the ooze filled her mouth and  
enveloped her face, leaving only a open hand, slowly sinking into the engorgement of the  
poison.  
  
Like Lazarus returning from the dead, Goliath rose up and his entire body flexed and  
rippled with sheer power. His strength was returning as the evil was drained from his  
heart and soul. A gargoyle's scream of war filled the entire auditorium, sending the  
shadow Sobek and his taken fragments into convulsions of pain. Goliath emerged from  
the light and headed directly for the hand of his most precious love. And just before it  
disappeared beneath the surface, a massive lavender hand grabbed hold, and pulled with  
all it's might.  
  
Elisa was torn from the sickness, and into Goliath's awaiting arms. She coughed what  
foul matter had filled her lungs and wrapped both arms around Goliath's neck. "...I'm  
really...starting to love these...last second rescues of yours," she cried blissfully, "I knew  
you...would save me, I knew you would beat this."  
  
"I have you to thank for being the guide." He locked eyes with his love, and charcoal  
met chocolate in a rousing bond, strengthened through adversity and courage. They came  
together in a meeting of their lips, tasting each other's succulent warmth and sweet  
flavor.  
  
"I love you." she said upon parting.  
  
"And I love you, my dearest Elisa." he breathed wistfully. "We are together forever, in  
both spirit and soul."  
  
"NNOOOOOO!!!" The shadow Sobek lept from his place and hauled his way towards  
the couple. "You will not win!!"  
  
Goliath released Elisa, and stood in front of her, waiting for the poison he had almost  
succumbed to, to reach his stead. As the specter of the toxin launched himself at him  
with a sharpened armory of his claws, Goliath simply caught him by the chest, sending  
his talons deep into the flesh, and holding him in mid-air. "You no longer have any  
power here, demon. Now release my clan, and the hold on my mind."  
  
"...never..."  
  
"I said," his eyes burst open with his angered glow, "release. Them. NOW!!!"  
  
The shadow Sobek felt the gargoyle's grip into his chest cavity tighten, and he reluctantly  
let loose the clan. One by one they spilled from the walls, and into each other's arms.   
Lovers were reunited, and parents with their children. The inflicted injuries had  
vanished, as if the battle had never taken place. They approached their leader, and stood  
to the side as he addressed his adversary in a cold tongue.  
  
"A very good try." said Goliath. "I almost had myself doubting my family and friends  
and the love I shared with my Elisa. I almost succumbed to the guilt and pain caused by  
the death of my clan. But I know now, I was not at fault. I did my best, and ensured their  
safety for as long as I was leader. I was betrayed..." He looked to Demona, who  
painfully ripped her gaze away. "By someone who never meant to hurt her kind. By  
someone who made a grievous mistake. By someone who I believe...deeply regrets her  
actions, and has once again become a vital part of this clan."  
  
Demona never looked back, but shed a single tear at his eloquent words, and felt  
Angela's arms steal around her, and press tight to her skin.  
  
"My clan never truly died, they are still with me. The agony I carry over their deaths will  
still reside within me, for I need that pain to help ensure nothing else will ever happen to  
my new clan. It will serve as a constant reminder to me in my continuing fight to keep  
all I love safe from harm. And right now, poison, I shall begin my life anew, starting  
with your destruction, and the retaking of my soul." He placed both hands to each side of  
Sobek's head, and forcefully pulled apart. Sobek was ripped in two, and with his demise,  
released a disheartening wail of devastation.  
  
The taken components, Goliath's worst parts of his mind, yelled in pain, as their master  
had crumbled to dust. Thailog and Jon Castaway shattered, and erupted in a fiery death.   
The rest were enveloped by a bright white radiance, and as the poison released them from  
a madman's bond, they resumed their proper roles in the lavender giant's mind. They  
stood tall, in their proper ivory garments, slowly joining the rest of Goliath's psyche, and  
re-introducing themselves.  
  
"I am his praise," said David Xanatos, his suit having changed to a stark glowing white,  
"his pride at seeing his clan grow and live in happiness."  
  
"I am his pleasure," continued Fox, "his utter delight and joy."  
  
Next to speak was Jason Canmore, now chained once again to his wheelchair, but  
seeming as if he belonged there. "I am his trust, his honesty."  
  
And last was Demona, a flowing white dress having replaced her dark garments. "I am  
his patience, his calmness and composure."  
  
Elisa tightened her grip upon her husband's hands, as she was held in his embrace.   
"You're all back together."  
  
The soul-Elisa approached from the crowd. "Not quite," she answered, fastidiously  
snapping her gaze to the environment, still a darkened wasteland, churning with the last  
vestiges of poison, "there is one last task for you, Goliath, to release yourself from this  
toxin."  
  
"And what is that?" he replied, looking down upon the angel having taken his wife's  
form.  
  
"Coming to terms with she who you spurned."  
  
"Who?"  
  
The soul-Elisa pointed to an indistinct region of the room, where a lone figure stood, as if  
purposely concealing herself in the shadows. "Look, Goliath, upon she who loved you  
very much."  
  
Goliath gently moved Elisa from his side, and slowly walked forwards, heading towards  
the figure. He came to a halt when his eyes peered upon the form. "It's you..."  
  
The figure moved forwards, a slender shape, with wings held high and flawless lavender  
skin, so much like Goliath's own. "So, you do remember me."  
  
"How could I forget?" Goliath answered back, his tone wavering with an unknown pain.  
  
"Goliath," Elisa came running to his side, "who is it?"  
  
"She...is my mother."  
  
Elisa's mouth gaped, as did the rest of the clan's, except for a smiling Hudson. The  
gargess moved even closer, and looked up into her son's noble face. She possessed his  
skin tone, and his brow spikes, with a shocking tress of pure ebony shine. Streaks of  
sterling gray flowed through, yet only added to her beauty. She covered herself with a  
simple brown tunic, and a leather belt around her waist. "I thought you might perhaps  
not welcome me back, after what happened."  
  
Goliath's half smile fell, as did his heart. "O-On the contrary, I hoped one day I would  
have a chance to apologize to you...for what I said a thousand years ago."  
  
The soul-Elisa circled around them. "What did you say?" she asked of her self, playing  
the part of a certain psychiatrist waiting outside of this realm for their safe return. "Why  
do you feel so much pain when staring at this member of your clan from Scotland?"  
  
"Because...I once told her, that she was not my mother, and I effectively broke her heart  
with a simple, spiteful sentence."  
  
"Why would you tell her that?"  
  
Goliath continued to stare at the woman before him, her smile still speaking volumes to  
his heart. "I was uncomfortable with her...special attention to me, and took it upon  
myself to remind her of the gargoyle's way of raising the hatchlings."  
  
"And she was hurt by that...why?"  
  
"I was angry, being treated any different from my brothers and sisters made me feel  
different myself, so I...yelled at her." Goliath's eyes were welling with tears, gazing  
down at a caretaker who he thought he would never see again. "I was so hurtful. I was  
so...aggressive, mean. When my anger subsided, I wished so I could take it back, but my  
stubborn pride prevented that fact."  
  
"And then what happened?"  
  
Goliath's tears were now running rampant, as he was unable to hold them back any  
longer. "She was...killed a few months later...in a Viking raid on the castle...and I never  
had the chance to apologize to her. She died knowing only my hatred filled words still  
within her. I am so sorry..." He reached out to the female gargoyle with a trembling  
hand, and stopped, thinking she most likely would not accept.  
  
But surprising him, she quickly snatched his hand, and pressed it to her chest. Her grip  
tightened about the massive assemblage of fingers and muscle, and she continued her  
gaze into his own eyes of a matched tint, the purest onyx passed from mother to son. "I  
knew you truly regretted your words, and I never came forth to extend my apology as I  
knew you wished so dearly to make the first move to me."  
  
"But I never did..."  
  
"Only because my death prevented that. You would have come back to me in your own  
time, but you were so filled with your father's words of tradition and honor, you could  
not see past your own wings, making it difficult for you to apologize for something you  
thought was right."  
  
"My...father..."  
  
"His father?" Elisa whispered, running through her mind, what hulking beast would have  
ever shared his stature with his impressive offspring.  
  
"Yes, Elisa Maza," a deep, booming voice, lower than that of Goliath's, rumbled behind  
them, "his father." A massive shadow appeared and loomed over Goliath's mother. The  
entire clan, even Goliath, had to crane their necks to come face to face with this newest  
gargoyle. Standing almost eight feet tall, with a solemn grayish skin pallor, and a  
massive brow over dark eyes. A tremendously muscular form, with a mass of sable hair  
flowing to the waste, and over his black loincloth.  
  
"Whoa!" exclaimed Elisa, straining to see this gargoyle towering over her. "Now that's a  
big guy."  
  
He looked to the human and smiled, rugged features, from where Goliath had inherited  
his handsome exterior, forming a grin. "Goliath is of my blood. And he seems to have  
broken with a tradition held in very high standard with my kind. He mated with a human,  
and acknowledged a daughter of the clan as his own. I am somewhat surprised at  
this...Goliath."  
  
Goliath looked down, and Elisa found it hard to believe her husband had actually been  
scolded. He swallowed hard before answering, "I...never wished to disappoint you, elder,  
but...these are very different times...I..."  
  
"Do not apologize." he bellowed, perhaps unintentionally. "Adaptation is a skill leaders  
must possess to ensure the security of their clan, and you needed to adjust to this new  
world. I am truly glad you found your daughter safe, and admitted to her parentage. You  
brought her true happiness through those actions, that may have caused you some pain. I  
am also glad to see that my mate's wondrous beauty resides in the newest generation. I  
take great pleasure in seeing...all three of my beautiful granddaughters live and thrive  
with their family."  
  
At this comment, Angela and Delilah blushed somewhat.  
  
"Ye always were th' sweet-talker, brother." replied Hudson casually.  
  
"Hmmm, yes, my old friend. But, Goliath, this pain you feel is mostly centered around  
your last words with your mother," Goliath's father continued, "you still carry great  
torment in your heart from that ill-chosen declaration."  
  
"I know...I know," Goliath agreed hastily with his father, "but I was training, perhaps to  
be second of my clan one day, and felt I needed to...uphold gargoyle tradition. To not  
lose what we had in the face of human expansion into our world."  
  
"Though my mate's actions were not...considered part of our custom, some gargoyles  
found it hard to raise the children they knew as theirs, like just another hatchling. Her  
bond with you was so powerful, Goliath, she could not ignore that. I do not blame her for  
breaking our traditions, I blame myself for being so stubborn, and closed-minded to her  
love for you, our son."  
  
Goliath turned back to his mother. "I am so sorry, for ever making you feel...as if you  
were not a valued part of my life. I knew even at a young age, that you were truly my  
biological mother, and found myself blessed with your friendship. But..."  
  
"I suppose, my son," she cut in, "that I mothered you too much."  
  
Goliath smiled, and finally wrapped his mother into his arms, closing his wings about  
her. She nestled into the breadth of his chest, and sighed her bliss of finally being  
accepted. "I am sorry...mother."  
  
"Now," said the soul-Elisa, "things are finally complete." The room shook slightly as the  
remnants of the poison drifted away. They bled from the walls and retreated from the  
floor, leaving only a glorious white, rimmed with an ornamentation of gold. Each frame  
upon the wall now held a member of the clan in their confines. The shaft of white light  
in the center contained a swirl of ochroid dust, collecting in ever increasing amounts, and  
building a form of solid gold within. It was Elisa, an angelic specter frozen in gleaming  
alloy. The ultimate symbol of his love, and the very part of his being that is his soul.   
"Your soul has been rebuilt and strengthened even further by the love of your clan and  
your mate."  
  
Elisa wrapped herself around Goliath's arm and he responded in kind with a gentle  
sweep of his talons to her hair.  
  
"Wait," Angela came forward, "I am still a little confused. How can you be here when  
you died over a millennia ago?" She directed her question to Goliath's mother.  
  
"We are the parts he carries with him always. We forever live here, in his cherished  
memories." Goliath's mother stepped back, and directed her gaze to an entirety of bodies  
surrounding the room. Goliath's clan had returned, all those killed long ago, back to  
grace their leader's eyes for one more time. Goliath whirled around to see all his  
brothers and sisters risen from their shattered forms, and standing to attention all around  
him. "We are forever with you, my son. I am with you, until eternity's end. But it's  
time now, to go back to the real world."  
  
"I do not wish to leave you..."  
  
"We are still here," she responded, placing her hand to his chest, over his powerfully  
beating heart, "right here. All of us."  
  
"Thank you, mother. I...I love you."  
  
"And I you, my handsome son." Goliath's mother answered, stepping back into her  
mate's chest. "Take care of yourself, and your family."  
  
"Until my last breath." And the world dissolved around the clan, as Goliath filled his  
eyes with one last look to his mother and father, before the darkness of unconsciousness  
overtook him.  
  
****************************************  
  
"Look! They're coming around." Sharon called out, catching everyone's attention to the  
clan.  
  
Goliath stirred first, and upon opening his eyes, found Elisa waking beside him. He  
gathered her into his arms, and she groggily awakened to his dusky eyes. "Hello, my  
Elisa."  
  
"Hey, Big Guy. How are you feeling?"  
  
A deep breath of fresh air inhaled into his lungs, the taste of freedom, and good health.   
"For the first time, in a long time...complete, and whole. Thank you." He stood up, with  
Elisa carried in his arms, and faced the rest of his clan, now standing alongside. "Thank  
you. All of you. I would not have survived if not for your courage and strength. I  
apologize for my actions and words in the past few days, Annika, Angela, all of you, I  
was...not myself."  
  
"It's all right. You are our leader, and our friend, father," replied Angela, as she quickly  
curled against him, always mockingly jealous of his attention to Elisa, "you are a part of  
us."  
  
The clan all gave forth their best wishes as they hugged him and shook his hand. The  
mutates, the doctors, and even little Alexander, having been united with his parents.  
  
Goliath eyed Dr. Blackwell, and extended his hand. "Thank you, doctor. Your help was  
greatly appreciated."  
  
"I am glad you have come to terms with what you have faced," she replied, excitedly  
grasping his hand and seeing who she had heard so much about, with an actual smile  
tugging at his lips, "I hope you won't keep your feelings bottled up inside."  
  
"No. I know now, it helps to talk freely about your problems with those you love."   
Goliath then turned to the three of his friends, once enemies, and yet a part of the almost  
suicidal plan to save his sanity. "I have you to thank, Fox, Xanatos...Demona, as well. I  
could never have imagined you would go to such great lengths to help save my life."  
  
"You have allowed us, former enemies, to seek redemption," said Fox, "and have  
become a good friend."  
  
"We both have always believed our fates were intertwined, now we know that's true."  
Xanatos added to his wife's words. "Thank you, for trusting us."  
  
Goliath simply nodded and then turned his attention to Demona. The former mates stood  
silently, staring at each other, until Goliath reached to her, and she accepted. "Thank  
you, Demona. Without your help, I may have been lost."  
  
"And without you to help bring me back, I too would have been lost to a thousand years  
of revenge and hatred. Shall we call it even then?"  
  
He squeezed her hand even harder, trying to muffle a laugh. "Of course..."  
  
"Well, as much as I hate to break up this touching moment," Brooklyn drawled, his  
sarcasm cutting through the conversation quite effectively, "it's almost morning."  
  
"It's dawn already?"  
  
"I could have told you that." answered Elisa, as she took hold of her baby daughter and  
let loose a yawn. "Man, I don't know about any of you, but I'm beat."  
  
"Come, let's get to our perches. Tomorrow shall be a brand new start, for all of us."  
  
****************************************  
  
The night had once again arrived, and announced it's presence with a splash of  
remarkable color, growing ever darker with the retreat of the sun. The glowing orb soon  
melted into the distant landscape and the island of Manhattan lit up. Upon dusk's advent,  
the gargoyles tore from their stone shells, and met the winter breeze head on, and for one  
in particular, it smelled as sweet as ever.  
  
But two familiar scents lingered around Goliath's sense of smell, as he turned to find his  
wife and baby daughter waiting for him to awaken. Goliath immediately jumped down  
and grabbed Trinity from Elisa's arms. With a whirl of his progeny to the sky, she  
flittered and squealed and laughed with her flight. Goliath smiled even larger than  
before, a renewal of life commencing this night.  
  
"So, feeling better?" Elisa teased, knowing with the large grin curling his lips that he  
was.  
  
"Very much." he replied quickly, his pleasant tone carrying through, as if all demons he  
had carried for so long had disappeared.  
  
Elisa instantly snared his arm with her lithe form, grazing her cheek to his skin and  
reveling in the calming warmth that had been almost lost some days ago. His  
self-inflicted injuries were gone, healed by the stone, leaving only a regal facade. Yet her  
reverie was broken suddenly when a voice called out to her husband.  
  
"Father?!" It was Angela, having traveled the steps to the tower and running to her  
father's side. "I was wondering if you would join me for breakfast?"  
  
"Hey!" Another call came forward, as Delilah had followed Angela's path. "He's going  
to come to the Labyrinth with me!"  
  
"No way!!" And yet one more cry, as a pair of young voices echoed about the cornices.   
"He said he would help us with our newest Nintendo game!!" Graeme and Arianna  
appeared briskly from the stairway, and ran towards the lavender giant.  
  
Goliath, holding a squirming Trinity in his arms and pulling at his hair, contended with  
four young gargoyles vying for his attention. He scattered his looks to each youthful  
face, left speechless in the brunt of their yelling.  
  
"AHEM!!!" Elisa forcefully cleared her throat and appeared before six sets of wide eyes.   
"I am his wife, so I get first dibs." Instantly, a discord of angry yells erupted, furious at  
Elisa's theft of Goliath, until she simply thinned her eyes and crossed her arms. The  
voices soon died out and they fell silent. "You can have him when I am done with him,  
and not a second sooner. Now come on, Big Guy, leave Trinity with her sisters and let's  
go."  
  
Goliath turned to the others, and shrugged his apology, handing off Trinity to Angela, and  
hiding from her scowl as he quickly followed his wife down the steps.  
  
****************************************  
  
"So, my love," Goliath started, closing the bedroom door behind them, "you now have  
me all to yourself." In a jest, and an attempt to bring a smile to her face, he hopped onto  
their bed and sprawled into a laying position, planting his head onto his elbow and  
cocking a browridge in her direction. "You may now do to me what you wish."  
  
Elisa simply shook her head. "Oh we'll get to that later. But there's something else..."   
She quickly moved to her dresser and pulled from the top drawer, the emerald crystal  
necklace given to her by her husband four days ago. "I never properly expressed my  
gratitude for your anniversary gift," she said, placing the pendant around her neck, "and I  
would like to thank you...very personally."  
  
"Oh?" Goliath perked up, enjoying the turn this conversation was taking.  
  
"Now before your loincloth is thrown to the floor in a fit of passion, just shut up and  
listen..." Elisa sat beside him, and curled her fingers down his brow. "After the attack  
by Sobek, I was so scared. Scared that my husband, my family, my baby girl could be  
hurt, or even killed."  
  
Goliath sat up quickly and tried to speak his mind, yet with a copper hand placed over his  
mouth, he was silenced.  
  
"What I said before, that I wished sometimes it would be over...that wasn't entirely true.   
This life I have with you is worth the fight. That little angel of a girl we have together is  
worth it. Keeping my family safe and you always by my side, is worth it. I know now,  
that we won't be beaten, not by anyone. Not by Sobek or any other psycho bastard that  
thinks we're an easy target. We've beat him twice now, and I know we'll beat him again.   
We're strongest together, and together will we prevail. I love you with all of my heart,  
and I feel as if you were the one I was looking for ever since I was born. I can't even  
imagine my life without you there, waiting for me, my guardian angel gracing the highest  
turret of a fairytale castle. You and I are one, now...and forever."  
  
Goliath looked at her with an overwhelming love in his eyes, and found himself at a loss  
for words. "Elisa..."  
  
"Hey, I know you think I might also just be trying to cover the pain I've experienced the  
past few months, but," she held up her left hand, and there on her third finger was her  
wedding ring, a diamond in a setting of golden glow and a symbol of love shared with her  
mate, "when I said 'I do' a year ago...I meant it."  
  
He looked upon her with a renewed sense of hope. Everything he had dreamed about and  
hoped for, was contained within this slender body. His angel of trust, prospect and  
desire, taken form in her lush bronze skin and thick ebony hair. He leaned in to capture  
her lips and within that expanse of mere seconds, he detected a creak from beyond their  
bed. The doors opened slowly and in peeked a lavender face.  
  
"Father?" Angela called out quietly. "Are you and Elisa decent? As in fully clothed?"  
  
A rumbled sigh ripped through Goliath's lips, as once again, his children's timing had  
ruined a romantic interlude. "Yes, Angela."  
  
The young gargess slipped inside, with Delilah and Trinity and the twins behind her, and  
they all surrounded the couple, placing themselves onto the bed.  
  
"We thought we might invite you to breakfast," Angela asked, propping herself near her  
father, "if Elisa is finally finished with you."  
  
Goliath stalled his question, and roamed his eyes to every gargoyle on his bed. Those he  
almost lost in the span of a week, and those who risked their lives to save him. "No," he  
began, swelling into a peculiar smile, "I have something better in mind."  
  
"And what would that be?" Elisa asked, inherently curious about what he would think up.  
  
"I wish to tell you, all of you, about my past. About my clan from Scotland, and how  
they enriched my life so."  
  
Elisa instantly grew a massive smile, her eyes beaming. "I've been wanting to hear about  
your family for the longest time. Especially a certain...unconventional mother-in-law. It  
seems she and I have a lot in common."  
  
"I know, and I'm sorry to have kept my past from you, but the pain was sometimes too  
great."  
  
"And now?" Delilah chirped.  
  
"And now, to build a bridge between the past, the present," he looked intently at Trinity,  
"and the future, would truly be a blessing indeed."  
  
"So, get started." Elisa excitedly exclaimed, finding a more comfortable place to sit.  
  
"Well, where should I start?"  
  
"Try the very beginning..."  
  
"All right. Perhaps the first memory I had was the rookery where I was hatched, and the  
caretakers there, including...my mother. She..."  
  
"HEY!!!" A shrill yell bellowed within the hallway, and Todd blew through the doors.   
"Come on! Breakfast's ready, I'm friggin' starving, and Broadway won't serve without  
his 'darling mate'..."  
  
"Hmmm...there's that overwhelming urge to punch him again." Goliath whispered. "I  
was busy telling the tale of my past, Mr. Hawkins."  
  
"Why does everyone keep calling me that? Hey guys!!" he yelled back to the kitchen.   
"Goliath's gonna spill his guts about his past. Come on!! And bring some grub!!" The  
young human tore over to the couch, turned it around to face the bed and flopped onto  
the plush cushions. And mere moments later, the rest of the clan, including the  
Xanatoses, Demona, and Owen, had entered into the bedroom, and made themselves  
comfortable.  
  
"Well," Elisa drawled, "we're waiting..."  
  
The lavender giant peered to all his family, gargoyles, humans, Fay, brought together in a  
bizarre set of circumstances, coincidences, and twists of fate, yet seeming now as if they  
all belonged together. "My family, my clan, my brothers and sisters. I loved them all,  
and deeply cherished the time we spent together. I remember each and every one of  
them, and the moments we shared, as if it were yesterday, and how they were some of the  
happiest times in my life..." 


End file.
